From a Jack to a Queen
by ChocolateBunnyChan
Summary: Misunderstood for her way of choosing patients and seemingly miraculous operations has given Doctor Kagome Higurashi an unfortunate title: Doctor Red Queen. Though she has never met her namesake, the two doctors become inevitably linked by their titles.
1. Chapter 1

**Well I have recently discovered and fallen helplessly in love with the medical anime Black Jack. So I thought I'd try a crossover. While I am in the nursing program at my college, I cannot offer as wonderfully detailed medical descriptions as I would like. I don't want to put any incorrect medical content so I will not go into accurate detail of the surgeries. As I mentioned above, I am in the nursing program at my school so I'm afraid that updates will be slow!**

**I'm a bit out of practice with my writing so please don't be put off by this rather sucky set-up chapter!**

Kagome Higurashi let out a heaving sigh as she entered her newly built home and clinic. Before stepping over the threshold Kagome cast a quick glance around _her_ home. It felt so strange to call this place _hers_ Kagome marveled to herself as she glanced at the small trickling waterfall besides her home, letting the sound soothe her mind some.

From the outside the structure looked like a Buddhist temple with rich dark lacquered wood and outdoor covered hallways. It had confused her carpenter to no end why a doctor would request such a strange home, but had built it none the less all while wondering the young woman's purpose in doing such a thing. Only Kagome knew there _had_ been a temple there 500 years ago, Master Mushin's temple to be exact.

Kagome was not sure just _how_ the land had come into her possession, only that her name had been written in the previous landholder's (an elderly person she had never heard of, much less _knew_) will along with a tiny sum that Kagome had used to rebuild Mushin's temple which was now aptly renamed _Mushin's Pediatric and Veterinarian Clinic_.

After her grand adventures in the Feudal era Kagome had decided to put her abilities as a Miko and her experiences in the Feudal Era to good use. And the best way to do that had been to become a doctor. More specifically she wanted to be a doctor for youkai.

Youkai tended to live in extremely remote areas in order to escape humans. And those who were powerful enough to pass as humans were unable to seek medical attention should the need arise. One of the easiest ways to kill a person was to give them medicine that was not designed for their species. Just as chocolate is lethal to canines but harmless to humans.

In order to become a doctor for youkai, a nonexistent profession for which there is currently no certification or any training, she had to learn as much as she could in fields that already existed. Meaning she had become a veterinarian as well as a pediatrician.

One of the hardest and worst decisions she had made in her life (or so it had seemed in her days of medical school). If she had been smart she would have tackled one degree at a time, but _noooo_. She had been _so_ confidant that going for both doctorates would be _easy_ in comparison to her shard hunting days. She had been an utter fool to think it would be easy.

She couldn't even recall how many times she had called her mother, crying, because of the sheer stress and suicidal workload she had taken on. But somehow she had pulled through in the end and she was all the better for her hardships, or that was what she told herself.

In Kagome's mind knowing about the animal species from which youkai had either evolved from or were related to gave her some understanding of how to treat her patients.

Kagome was proud of herself for being perhaps the first person to write the book on many youkai, so to speak. Well, she hadn't written a book on it _yet_… and as far as she knew she was the _only_ doctor who considered themselves to be a youkai doctor. And it wasn't like she advertised herself as such… otherwise she'd surely have _no_ patients! She had to be extremely careful in her profession, as youkai were regarded as complete myths in the modern world and she planned to keep it that way.

Unfortunately her status as a trained miko among the youkai settlements she knew of did not help her in attracting patients in any way or form. It was perfectly understandable given the bloody past between miko and youkai, after all why would you seek help from a person who had the ability to turn you to dust with a single touch? So she had to keep up appearances as a vet and pediatrician to earn money.

To the modern world she was regarded with mixed views. Many believed her to be an unscrupulous doctor and vet, taking advantage of patients by demanding outrageous fees. On top of her fees she was known to abide by her own set of morals that no amount of money could persuade. If you did not measure up to be deemed worthy of treatment she would not treat you. She was also particularly adamant in her selection of human patients (not that they knew she reserved herself to treat youkai) Kagome would never operate on any adult humans, setting her limits to children 12 and under, who had yet to hit puberty. So if say, a 9 year old girl who has started menstruating early were to be brought to the Doctor she would refuse.

The majority of patients/clients and other health professionals she had come in contact with believed her method of choosing patients to be cruel and unjust and had cost her job at many a hospital.

But the truth was that her abilities were essentially useless on humans. She had found out the age limit through many unsuccessful surgeries. Miko powers were designed to only protect humans, meaning they could not be used on humans no matter the intention. However young children seemed to be receptive of her miko ki, although nowhere near the amount a youkai would be.

She had to charge such high fees so that she could afford to treat youkai who had no ability to make money if they were unable to take a humanoid form. There was no such thing as a free lunch, and medical procedures cost serious money. Money that she had to pay out of her own pocket in order to treat someone for 'free'. Humans could merely get more money by working. Most of the youkai settlements Kagome had visited were frighteningly backwards almost as though she had been taken back to the feudal age. The best she could hope for in terms of payment would be barter for magical goods or services. And selling cursed or magical items on EBay was not much of an option for her so she was forced to rely on human patients.

Kagome was by no means a master surgeon, and she knew it. But it was her ability to mix her miko ki in with the medical procedures that allowed her to pull off the seemingly impossible. Her miraculous feats had captured the attention of the medical world. The rumors of the miraculous female surgeon had spread swiftly and out of proportion.

The miko had been given a rather unfortunate nickname; one that she was beginning to fear would all but erase her true name. She had no idea just who had started the awful nickname or what had possessed people to pick it up. It seemed she was very similar to a rather infamous doctor, a man whom she had only heard rumors of during medical school. She could not see any sort of similarity between herself and that doctor that would warrant the name at all!

It had gotten to the point that doctors and vets she had worked with since the start of her medical career no longer called her by her true name. The fact that she was currently in danger of loosing her pediatric license only furthered her new alias.

It seemed that Dr. Kagome Higurashi no longer existed and in her place remained Doctor Red Queen much to the miko's chagrin.

Red Queen-sensei had been accused of using stem cells to produce her miraculous achievements. That she was using stem cells in her patients to further her own illegal stem cell research.

Stepping into her kitchen Kagome spotted a pile of papers she had yet to remove from her counter. Giving a bitter frown at the court summons she had received from the Board of Doctors all those months ago, Kagome had no idea why she had bothered to keep the papers that had all but damned her.

She had known that the Board of Doctors would never understand or even believe her if she were to tell of her miko powers. She had been effectively trapped and cornered, unable to defend herself from the false accusations. She had done the only thing she could; confessed to using her children patients as test subjects to further stem cell research. She claimed she didn't care about the moral or ethic issues surrounding the volatile subject, just so long as she saved her patient's life. That it was unfair to be punished for doing something that save the patient's life.

Of course, the entire matter was hush-hush to the Board. Meaning the reasons for Red Queen's expulsion was never openly released to the public. They merely stated that she performed procedures that were not sanctioned in Japan.

From then on Kagome Higurashi cleverly hid her miko powers behind this stem cell façade, as it could be entirely possible.

Thankfully there had not yet been a ban on animal stem cell research*, meaning she was able to keep her veterinarian license. Having this license allowed her a bit of a loophole in her practice, as humans _technically are_ animals.

Still, Kagome had been forced into the shadows to avoid suspicion, which ironically enough didn't take her away from the public eye. The media had decided to jump on the story of this female Black Jack, heralding her as a dark doctor as pure as the miko robes she wore. Which honestly was a contradiction in itself, but the media loves to spin such tales to sell their goods. The public bought it up and Kagome became a cold martyr of the medical field who took large amounts from the rich so she could treat and give to the poor. Being cast in such a heroic manner had captured the public's attention, giving her an unwanted amount of human's seeking her treatment. Because she had dedicated herself to serving youkai, she had been forced to take on an unpleasant persona to try to deter humans from seeking her out.

The press and more specifically, the tabloids, had been having a field day with Red Queen coming up with the most bizarre stories about her. Kagome read these from time to time, finding the wild speculations to be humorous.

However because she never bothered to correct the stories, the public had a very flawed view of what was 'true' about her.

The most common belief was that she had been viciously attacked by wild animals while camping (a former roommate from medical school had let it 'slip' that Kagome had a great deal of scars on her body) and that her absences during the last year of her middle school were due to some sort of revolutionary psychotherapy to overcome her intense phobia of animals. The tabloids claimed that her therapy had involved living with wild animals, becoming one with animals, and other such romantic crap. The end result was that Red Queen no longer felt any connection to human beings; the reason she refused to treat human adults. Apparently Red Queen was supposed to have seen a little girl killed in the wild animal attack, which moved her to treat children.

Recently, however there was a new twist to the lovely Red Queen. Apparently some photographer had come up with the _ingenious idea_ to play on the supposed connection between the female surgeon and her namesake. The end results were cleverly doctored photos of the two Doctors who had in actuality never met. There was a photo of Black Jack pulling Red Queen to him, making it seem as though the doctor was making aggressive moves on the 'pure' doctor who had a surprised look on her face.

So now the medical world was full of gossip about the two unlicensed (well, one was technically half-licensed) doctors.

With all the publicity and _rumors_ of illegal procedures Kagome had unwittingly attracted some shady human clientele. She quickly learned that she had to treat the medical underworld the same way she approached the remote youkai settlements, plenty of caution and an air of aloofness.

**So, how was it? I couldn't bring myself to be happy with this chapter at all. Sorry there's no real action yet- just trying to set up the stage for our Doctor Red Queen A.K.A Kagome Higurashi. I hope the next chapter seems a bit more interesting. Constructive criticism is much appreciated as I'm a bit out of writing shape!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own either InuYasha or Black Jack**

Doctor Black Jack was currently unawares of a female named after him and had just finished an interesting case in India that was worth far more than the $4 million he had taken the case for. He should have asked for $10 million for all the trouble that case had given him! Spending almost 3 months in the humid jungle, in the middle of monsoon season, and having to deal with an extremely contagious and mutated infectious disease was not worth a measly four million… But the past was the past, and he would just have to accept it. He could always charge his next patient more.

Relieved to be finally heading home Black Jack hailed a cab outside of the crowded airport.

Sure enough a taxi cab hurried over to him, the driver eager for business as he placed the doctor's luggage in the trunk while Black Jack took a seat in the back. Doing his best to ignore the nearly nauseating scent of some unnamable, unpleasant car air freshener the doctor set his sharp gaze out the window. Or at least he tried to before his driver decided to strike up a conversation with him.

"Oi, I couldn' help but notice yer scars…" the man began, causing Black Jack to shift his glare towards the back of the cab driver's seat. He didn't like it when people were rude about his less than desirable appearance.

The man was unable to see the glare directed at him so he continued, "An' yer all dressed in black in spite o' this doggone heat… You that Doc' Black Jack?"

"Is it a problem if I am?" Black Jack asked warily.

"Naw, youse fine by me, Doc. Meh friend who owns a lil' pub- yeh treated 'is lil lass's eye, an fer a few months of free drinks n' grub at tha!" the man exclaimed jovially as he slowed down at a red light. Stepping on the gass as the light shifted to green the cab driver continued his praise for a while before saying something that caught the doctor's attention.

"I didn't catch that, could you say it again?"

The man gave a hearty grunt before obliging the doctor, "Haven't ya heard Black Jack? Doctor Red Queen is goin' ta give youse a run for your money!"

"Red Queen?" Black Jack asked. That was a name he'd certainly never heard before.

"Aye sir, they be sayin' round these parts that a woman who per'forms medical miracles. They say she was once a shrine maiden 'afor Kami-sama commanded the lass to become a doctor. O'corse tha's what I heard."

"So she uses religion to influence her patients?" Black Jack asked, immediately recalling some rather unpleasant run-ins with 'religious healers' he had encountered in the past.

"Naw, naw. Tha lass don' mention religion she just wears the garb that be proper for a shrine maiden. Got a red haori tha' she wears like a cape, too. I suppose that be account'in the 'Red' of 'er name." The cab driver seemed to be pleased he could tell the doctor something useful.

Black Jack was perplexed; he had chalked up the 'Red' to be symbolic for blood, meaning she had no reservations for cutting up patients like the woman who had been dubbed 'Black Queen' for her icy demeanor and willingness to amputate limbs.

"Then why is she named after me?"

"I don' wan imply nothin' but I hear she 'fuses ta treat adults! Heard she rejected an offer 'spite being offered 5 million yen! Just turned up 'er nose an' walked away! 5 million! But they be sain' on da same day the lass saves some street waif's dog fer nuthin'! Gives a whole new mean'in ta the fickleness of women, don' it Doc?" The cab driver gwauffed at his own joke.

"'parently Red Queen likes animals over people…." the man muttered lowly.

"Just be mindin' this only wha' I heard bout Red Queen. Don' know if it be true or not. Ya be better off askin' some doctors, Doc." The man stated as he slowed the cab down as he arrived at his customer's destination.

~!~

Black Jack was not terribly worried about another female surgeon named after him. After all Black Queen was named after him, and she was hardly a household name. Only medical personnel and locals of her hometown called her Black Queen. He was sure this 'Red Queen' would be the same. Still it never hurt to know the competition, did it?

However it was several months later that the genius surgeon began to look into Red Queen. It would seem she had taken a few clients from him. He had only stumbled upon one of her patients by coincidence. It had been a young boy who had been admitted to a local hospital for an infected carbuncle on the four-year-old's right forearm. It seemed the head surgeon had known the boy had been treated by Red Queen and was afraid there was some sort of post-operational complication that would _surely_ be beyond his ability to treat. The Surgeon was also concerned that his hospital would loose its good reputation by having allowed an unlicensed surgeon to operate. It went against that logic to hire _another_ unlicensed surgeon in Black Jack's opinion but he remained quiet.

The young patient had made it crystal clear to Black Jack that he had been treated by the enigma Red Queen. The boy had thrown a full-scale temper tantrum demanding the mysterious doctor.

Black Jack had many patients do unusual things before, but being bitten and struck furiously on his head with a stuffed lion was a first. The only reason Black Jack hadn't quit the job was because it wouldn't sit right with him to let a patient possibly loose a limb or die because of an incompetent unlicensed doctor.

Reading through the child's medical history the Dark Doctor was extremely skeptical. The child had been an unfortunate victim of a freak construction accident. The medical report stated the boy had sustained a few broken bones. But the worst of the toddler's injuries was that his right arm had been crushed and ripped off from the elbow down.

(flashback to the actual event)

Kagome was having a very good day so far, having treated one of her preferred type: a youkai! It was a 4 person family blending in quite inconspicuously with humans. She had been very excited; it was the first time she had been called on by a modern demon family. Normally her patients lived in the very remote youkai settlements still living in the dark ages or the rather intimidating youkai who had changed with the times and ended up as insanely rich entrepreneurs and leaders in businesses. Basically the crème' de la crème, that all seemed to be very skilled in making her feel as though she was very much out of place.

So finding a youkai family that was disguised, as an average middle-class family was an extremely exciting prospect. The family was shark youkai, which as Kagome mulled it over in her head made sense seeing as this was a seaside town.

She hummed a little tune to herself, pleased with her work. The oldest child in the family had acute appendicitis and would have died had she not been in the area. Shark youkai anatomy was an extremely complex mix between the animal shark and human anatomy.

"Plus they're sure to tell other hidden 'modern' youkai about me meaning more clients!" Kagome smiled to herself as she randomly twirled in a circle, causing many passerby's to stare at the odd woman.

Deciding to grab a bite to eat she found a cute local café. Eyeing the menu Kagome half listened to the waitress as she prattled on about the soup of the day, and specials. But the former time traveler had already found exactly what she wanted. Nothing would keep her from getting that turkey sandwich! Plus she was backed up by a rather… let's say beefy man sitting in a booth a few tables down. If fat people like it, you can't go wrong!

Leaning back in her seat Kagome watched as people walked by the window she was sitting at. Unfortunately for her, this was a very small town that didn't get many visitors. Her waitress promptly came and sat down directly across from her.

'Oh, yeah. Hi there it's not like you're a total stranger. Maybe if I stare at her, she'll go away… this isn't working… sigh..'

"Uh… Can I help you Miss…. Toko?" Kagome asked as she squinted to read the name from the nametag.

"I've never seen you 'round here." The waitress drawled.

"Oh, I'm just passing through." Kagome stated shortly.

"You a travelin' priestess or somethin'?" It seemed the waitress didn't get the hint.

"Uh… No, I'm a Doctor."

"Oh" The teenaged girl paused, "Are you gonna go work at the regional hospital on the edge of town? It's really new; they built it two years ago. Guess the city folk didn't like getting' injured fishermen."

"… That's nice…" Kagome was ready to strangle the girl.

The miko was saved as a gruff voice called from the kitchen for the girl to pick up her sandwich.

Kagome was sure that the girl would leave her alone now that she had her food. But instead the girl sat right back down watching the doctor eat. Halfway through her hard-earned sandwich, Kagome couldn't take it anymore. Her blue eyes scanned around to find anything to distract the girl. 'Dang it! There's no empty glasses at any of the other tables…Ah! Outside. Gotta find something outside!'

Taking a sip of her water to wash down her food Kagome feigned interest in the construction site across the road. "What's that? It looks impressive for only being half-done."

Her plan had worked and the girl began to proudly explain what the new building was going to be allowing the miko to finish the rest of her turkey sandwich making sounds every now and then, pretending she was listening.

Only a bite away from finishing her food, Kagome nearly fell out of the booth. The annoying waitress was screeching bloody murder as the vibrations of something large and heavy falling to the ground.

Taking a few deep breaths to calm her racing heart, Kagome stood up feeling dread sink to the bottom of her stomach. She should have known that her perfect day was to good to be true!

Kagome was forced to slap the waitress from her hysterical screams. "Hey! Pull yourself together!" Taking charge of the panicking restaurant Kagome barked out orders, "Ok! Does anyone here have a cell phone?" After hearing a positive reply Kagome continued to speak calmly, "Good! Call 911! Tell them they are going to need ambulances down here now! Are there any Doctors or nurses here?"

After no reply Kagome sighed and here she had hoped she wouldn't have to get involved. She had been trying to lay low on the human scene, as she had her pediatric license revoked a few months ago. She had done nothing wrong, she had saved the patients life!

Unfortunately her annoying waitress had regained enough sense to remember that she was a doctor. "You said you were a doctor, Doctor!"

Guess she had no choice, time to become their miko in shining er… red armor! Besides the people trapped under the rubble were innocent victims!

Grabbing Inuyasha's fire rat cloak she donned the garment and made her way out of the café.

Spreading her miko ki, she felt out the auras in the rubble. There were nine, however one was already dead. Most likely killed on impact.

Kagome had pulled out two victims from the rubble with the help of some local men by the time the ambulance and fire fighters arrived.

That was her cue to slink away. As she made her way to watch from a distance something caught the doctors eye. Sticking out from the rubble was a tiny tire.

'Tricycle. How sad.' Kagome thought to herself. "There's nothing I can do…If I try to move any of the rubble you'll be crushed. Best to leave it to the fire fighters. If you make it out alive, I'll try to be the one to fix you up. Sorry I can't do more." Kagome spoke out loud, hoping the child would hear her.

Even 500 years ago in the feudal era Kagome had hated to see children die.

Kagome watched from a distance that allowed her to see the action without drawing attention to herself. Quite a feat, considering she was dressed mostly in a bright red. It was 15 minutes before they found the child. The commotion the fire fighters were making indicated to Red Queen the child was still alive. Her blue eyes immediately searched for damage.

The boy was unconscious, from either shock or blood loss. She was leaning more towards the blood loss, considering the child's arm was missing from the elbow down.

"They're not even looking for the missing limb…Well I'd better hurry, I need to get to the hospital before he gets taken into OR…" Kagome muttered to herself as she made her way to the ruble. She wasn't really fazed by the sight of destruction, she had seen far worse.

After a few minuets of searching she found the crushed limb. "Well I've got my work cut out for me. Now to hitch a ride to the hospital."

Kagome Higurashi had learned from the best at conning people, Miroku, she hated lying to people so she had to make it look good… Seeing a sharp edge on a piece of nearby rubble she made a scratch on the back of her forearm just enough to make it look bad.

Stumbling over to a paramedic Kagome feigned an excellent faint, prompting the paramedic to load her into the back of the ambulance. Halfway through the ride Kagome channeled her miko ki to the scratch, healing it up.

Feeling the vehicle slow down Kagome sat up. "Thanks for the ride! Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a patient waiting!" she said in a chipper voice that threw the paramedics off guard, giving the doctor a chance to escape.

"Wait, Ma'am! You're not well! You're suffering from blood loss and shock!"

Making her way to the reception desk she inquired about the young boy. She claimed she was there to pray over the child. Wearing priestess robes had their advantage from time to time.

"STOP!" Kagome yelled as she sprinted down the corridor to where her new patient was about to be admitted into the OR. Standing directly at the foot of the gurney Kagome caught her breath.

"I'm glad I caught you in time! Here you forgot this, I thought you might need it." Kagome said as she pulled out a bundled item from her robes holding the bundle to the surgeon. The surgical team gasped at the uncovered limb, appalled at the fact this strange woman would have the gall to bring such a gruesome thing!

"If you hurry, you can still save his arm." Kagome informed the surgeon.

"Miss, if you don't get out of the way I'll have you arrested!"

Giving a small serine smile Kagome ignored the surgeon as she looked to whom she inferred were the boy's parents. All she needed was their permission.

"Are you the patient's parents?"

"Can my Baby's arm really be saved?" The mother was clearly in shock as her voice trembled heavily as she stared at the amputated limb.

"It would be difficult, considering how long the arm has been detached, there's a chance that he might never regain use of his arm. And it increases every minute it is detached." Kagome explained in a calm voice.

A surgical nurse decided to put in her two cents, "The only person who could possibly do it is that unlicensed doctor, Black Jack! He could never get here in time!"

Kagome turned her head to the side, "There's that name again. I wonder why every where I go he is mentioned?" giving a shrug she continued pleasantly, "but that's not important right now. My name is Dr. Kagome Higurashi, I'm a pediatric surgeon and I would like to help. I can save your son's arm; I just need your permission. But if you'd rather not, I understand. If you don't choose in the next two minutes I will take your silence as a no, and I will get out of the way."

A crowd of doctors and nurses had gathered from the sound of the commotion. "Hey, what's going on?" "Some crazy woman is blocking the way. See over there- the one in red." "Who is she?" "Someone should call security or that child's going to die!" "She says she's a surgeon…" "She said something about Black Jack, does she know him?"

An orderly who had recently moved from the busy city of Tokyo longing for a simpler life stood in the growing crowd of onlookers. Something was nagging him about this. A female surgeon in red robes… Why was it so familiar?

As if a cartoon light bulb had appeared above his head the answer came to him, "RED QUEEN! That's who she is!" as he made his way through the crowd to get a better view of the living legend.

"Red Queen? Who's that?" "You've never heard of her? She's famous! She's the one that they call the living reincarnation of Black Jack! She's performed surgeries that were deemed impossible! " the orderly all but shouted.

"Well that's one I've never heard before… Well I guess it's better than that one about me being Black Jack's wife. It would be quite hard to be the wife of a man I've never met, wouldn't it?" Kagome replied good-naturedly causing the orderly to blush.

The boy's mother fretted anxiously before calling out to Kagome, "Wait! Doctor… Red Queen! Save my baby's arm- I beg you! We'll pay whatever you ask!"

"I'll do my best." Kagome stated as she began pulling the gurney through the OR doors.

A few months later the bandages were removed revealing a perfectly reattached arm much to the delight of the boy's parents. They would forever be grateful to the mysterious Dr Red Queen who had disappeared right after the surgery, never once mentioning any cost for her services.

~! Present day

Black Jack scrutinized the boy's arm under the magnifying power of his loupe. This was… unexpectedly good he had to admit as he followed the nearly non-existent surgical scar. There were no signs of keloids, infection, necrosis, or nerve damage. It would seem that Dr. Red Queen was not the amateur he had believed her to be, no, this was the work of an accomplished surgeon.

Taking off his gloves and loupe, Black Jack wrote up his diagnosis for the boy: acute cellulitis from gram negative staphylococcus aureus unrelated to the boy's surgery. Writing up a prescription for an antibiotic Black Jack took his leave of that hospital.

This Dr. Red Queen certainly had his attention now he admitted as he looked up to the bleak winter sky.

**Another chapter done, it's still lacking something in my opinion… Please review if you have any constructive criticism to help me improve my writing!**


	3. The Blind Acupuncturist

!#!$ The Blind Acupuncturist !

**Still don't own either Inuyasha or Black Jack**

Kagome had stopped to stay at an inn for the evening as she was simply sick of driving.

She was currently on her way to treat a Tengu or crow demon who lived in some mountain in a very rural area of Japan. As such, the town she had stopped at was rather destitute. Paying the inn keeper who had given Kagome one of their 'finest' rooms, she decided that a nice nap was in order.

Only an hour into her nap, Kagome was awoken by a sudden clamor from outside.

The Miko was confused at the ruckus coming from somewhere outside, what was going on?

Placing her red haori cape on she made her way downstairs to see the commotion.

A large group of townsfolk were gathered in a circle surrounding someone whom was blocked from her line of vision.

"Please look at me Ma, she's been bedridden for three years!" "Help my child, his lungs are weak!"

'A doctor?' Kagome wondered as she drew her old friend's haori tighter around herself finding comfort in the familiar fabric. If it was a doctor she should keep out of the way, she didn't need to be confronted by a licensed doctor.

From within the circle the stooped old man gave a few sniffs, something had changed in the air.

"Heh-heh-heh. You there, young woman! A doctor are you?" The man made his way through the crowd.

'How did he know?' Kagome wondered as the person came into sight. Her first thought that the man was a doctor did not seem quite right. The man was bald and emaciated, his clothes were little more than rags, and he wore an oversized purse on his back. The most unusual thing about this man was that his eyes were a pearly white and glazed over, he was blind.

Kagome tentatively stretched out her powers trying to inspect the blind man, anything that would give her some sort of insight as to how he had been able to tell she was a doctor.

He cocked his head to the side as her powers searched him; it would seem the man was extremely sensitive she realized as she withdrew her ki from him.

"My, my… You… are not a normal doctor are you, miss? I don't think I've met another quite like you… Heh-heh-heh." The man gave a crooked and yet somehow amused grin as he hunched over a bit.

Kagome did not say anything, she didn't know if this man could be trusted. There were people who could sense her powers, mostly spiritual people like monks and psychics. They knew to keep her power to themselves and respected her abilities.

Kagome knew immediately that the man was an acupuncturist as she felt his abilities, the needles in his pack contained small concentrated bits of spiritual energy and she could see the faint blue glow through the oversized purse's material.

'I wonder if he knows that he's putting spiritual power into them or if it's automatic.' she mused as she continued to observe the man.

"May I ask your name, acupuncturist-sama?" Kagome was slightly wary of the man, but she couldn't feel any dark intent from the man despite his dubious appearance.

"Heh-heh, I am Biwamaru."

Biwamaru, huh? It most likely wasn't his real name…

The two practitioners were interrupted from their observations of one another when the innkeeper of the same inn Kagome was staying at rushed up to the acupuncturist followed by an older man carrying a young girl.

"Please have a look a' mah' niece! She's just a lil' thing! Poor lass lost meh sister and her da' in a flood." The man pleaded as he held out the girl.

"Hmm I smell sickness…Well lay her down." Biwamaru crooned as his pearly eyes gleamed as he tilted his head a bit.

Kagome stared intently as she watched the thin man inspect the child, curious to see him work. It was clear that the girl was very ill, her skin was ashen and her breathing was labored.

She would bet anything that if she were to put a stethoscope to the girl's chest she would hear fluid in her lungs.

"Heh-heh-heh. Her lungs are bad, a high fever too… and… a kidney infection as well…" he muttered as he pulled a few needles from his pack.

The man gave a long hmm as he placed a finger in different parts of the girl's abdomen. "Ah! Here we are…"

Blue eyes widened as the level of ki became thicker and more concentrated as he pricked the girl in the spot he had chosen. She watched as the blue energy spread rapidly from the needle into the girl's body.

This was simply amazing; she'd never seen ki manipulated in such a way! And how had he known with such certainty what was wrong with the girl? Not once had he knocked on the girl's back to check for kidney pain! To say she was enthralled with the man's diagnostic ability was an understatement!

"She'll be right as rain in a few days. Heh-heh-heh" The man smiled cryptically as he began to clean off his needles before standing up. The innkeeper tried to give Biwamaru a few coins but was pointedly refused by the blind man.

"Thank ye! Thank ye!" the older man thanked the acupuncturist profusely as he picked the child up.

"Please, Doctor stay at our inn tonight! It's the least we can do!" The innkeeper insisted, heartened at the man's generosity towards her employee's niece.

Now certain that this man was truly altruistic and not a threat to her Kagome made up her mind.

She quickly got down on her knees, not at all caring about the dirt that would get on her red hakaima, and bowed low in respect for the man who she had deemed her superior.

"Your skill is incredible, Biwamaru-sama. Please I beg you to teach me! I've not met a person who is capable of using their ki to such a degree. If I could learn how you diagnose patients, I could help many people. Take me as your student!"

The scraggly man merely tilted his head, "Teach you? I don't think you are capable of learning my methods."

Kagome understood what he meant; he had obviously honed his craft after a lifetime of blindness and scents.

"I'm not blind, true. But my eyes can see what others cannot and my instincts have guided me many times in healing. I have worked very hard to harness and control my powers. I've learned how to combine modern medicine and my abilities from ongoing trials and errors."

"Hmn. Then you should continue as you are." The man stated dismissively as he shifted on his feet a bit.

"You don't believe me do you? Then let me show you. Please observe my technique and give your judgment." She was not going to let this acupuncturist go, not when she could learn acupuncture that could save her time and energy in treating her patients, whether they be demon, animal, or human.

The man said nothing but Kagome took his silence as an agreement. She hurried to the innkeeper to ask if there were any animals or children missing limbs in the area.

"Missing limbs? Why do you want to know such a thing? … If I'm not mistaken there's a little boy who had part of his arm amputated after he was bitten by a poisonous snake…"

"Where can I find him?"

"… Down the road that'a way. When you come to a large tree with a Jizo-sama statue next to it, turn right. The boy lives in one of the homes by the rice fields." The innkeeper explained as she took Kagome out into the street to point in the direction.

"Thank you. Make sure Biwamaru-sama doesn't leave. I'll be right back."

"What? What are ya plan'in to do Miss?"

"Hopefully, perform a miracle." Kagome muttered as she made her way down the road following the woman's directions.

It was 6:34 by the time she had found the correct house, the innkeeper's directions had been a bit off. Knocking on the shabby and worn-out looking door Kagome knew that this family was definitely one of the poorer ones in this poverty stricken town. She could hear a loud commotion from inside the tiny house, there was a large family living here.

A haggard looking woman answered the door, a screaming baby in arm. Three young children stood behind the woman, peering out at the miko. They all had limbs.

"C'n I halp ya?" The woman asked. "If yer here fer tha taxes or sumthin' we don't gots the money yet."

Definitely an impoverished family she decided as she began, "No, I'm not a tax collector. I was told there was a little boy who had part of his arm amputated living here. Do I have the right household?"

"Wha's it to ya?" The woman narrowed her eyes suspiciously at the strange woman at her door.

"I'm a doctor and I think I might be able to help your son."

The woman's face turned simultaneously depressed and angry. Kagome knew she had the right house.

"We don't gots any money Doctor." She said firmly as she bounced the baby on her hip. She looked ready to slam the door.

"I understand, but let me look at the boy. I may be able to help."

The woman continued to scrutinize Kagome before making sure, "It won't cost nuthin?"

Kagome nodded and the woman moved aside to allow her passage into the small home.

Kagome had been right when she had guessed the home contained a large family. It was a dynamic family with a set of grandparents along with the woman's family. The husband must be at work still or out drinking… As far as she could tell the household contained five children, two boys and three girls. Making the total of nine people crammed into a very small home that seemed to be two rooms and a bathroom.

The occupants of the home stared at their unusual guest with wide and curious eyes.

"Taro's ova' ther." The woman said pointing to a boy who sat staring out of the home's tiny back window, his right sleeve was pinned.

"How old is he and how did he loose his arm?" Kagome asked quietly.

"Ten. He was workin' with Pa in tha rice paddies. Bent down to pick some rice an' got bitten. The hospital had to chop it off cause it took so long ta get him ther." The woman explained as she went to tend to the food she had cooking on a hot plate.

Nodding Kagome said, "I see. Well let me look at him and I'll see if there's anything I can do."

The woman interjected quickly, "We don't gots the money fer one of dem fake hook arms."

"I understand, if I can help it won't cost you a thing. I promise."

The miko made her way over to the boy, Taro. "Hello Taro-kun."

The boy looked over to her with dim brown eyes, "Hello Mrs. Priestess. You here to pray or somethin'?"

Laughing Kagome smiled, "Not quite. May I see your arm?"

The boy shrugged and pulled off his shirt as best he could with one hand.

"Hmm…" she murmured as she inspected the amputated limb. Mid humerous, the boy had probably been bitten in the hand or forearm, unless he had placed his entire arm within a snake's striking reach. That was also a possibility, but unlikely if it had happened in a rice paddy. Normally amputations tried to take as little as possible. The original could have gotten infected resulting in cutting even more of the limb off.

But it didn't really matter how it had happened it only mattered if she could re-grow the arm mid humerous down. She preferred to regrow limbs that had been cut off below a joint. Joints could be very tricky and she sometimes used artificial ones to make the operation easier, saving her time and energy.

The fact that she was going to have to create a hand was already a daunting task considering the complexity of the physiology. Building the anatomy was easy, but getting it to move and function properly was not an easy task. Elbows were easy for her to do, but joints took time.

Her powers didn't work like magic, well they did, but not quite the way most would imagine. She couldn't just pump miko ki into a stub and will it to become an entire arm just by thinking about a completed arm.

Hah! If only it were that simple.

Her powers only coaxed new tissues to have the capability of being regenerated. Her powers could not change into cells. Cells could come only from current pre-existing cells. Limbs do not magically appear, they may seem to, but that was not what was scientifically happening within the body. After all spontaneous generation was a myth.

Since there were various tissues to be 'created' she needed the building blocks to form them. To build osseous tissue or bones she needed calcium and other minerals.

To build skeletal muscle she needed protein and other things to build the structures. She couldn't have protein and calcium come from nowhere, no, she had to take some from various parts of the body or supply them during surgery via IV. Taking nutrients and minerals from other places in the body was a dangerous thing to do as it could lead to brittle bones and other detrimental effects.

That risk multiplied if the patient was malnourished like this boy was. She would often give the nutrients she would need during surgery so that she didn't have to take from preexisting nutrient or chemical stores.

It was easy to see why her powers could be mistaken for stem cells as the processes were slightly similar in theory.

Demons were able to make it look like an easy process, and perhaps for them it was easier. Demonic energy coaxed cells to rebuild the lost limb in most cases and it seemed to be an inborn ability only found in certain species. Not all youkai could re-grow limbs or heal massive wounds, but their energy made it possible for the miko to manipulate it into performing the function.

Humans however lacked that energy to manipulate. Pre-pubecent children however were capable of having her powers manipulate them.

Kagome weighed the options in her head, she could do this. It would be annoying, but she could do this. With each surgery she performed the better she got at rebuilding limbs. Better, faster, and more efficient.

"Tell me, do you believe in miracles?" Kagome asked with a soft smile as she released the boy's stub.

The boy looked quizzically at the miko-doctor before slowly nodding, "I guess so."

"How would you like to receive one?" Sometimes playing off her abilities as 'miracles' worked well.

"What do you mean?"

"Well with your parent's consent, I could give you a new arm. It won't cost your family anything so don't worry about money."

"Yer gonna give Taro a fake arm? Fer free?" Came the mother's incredulous voice.

The miko smirked, she loved surprising people so she answered, "Something along that line, yes. Hopefully he'll be able to move it."

"Guess I can' say no to a free offer. I'm sure my husband would agree, Doctor?"

"My name's not important. Well then Taro come with me, if all goes well you'll be home tomorrow afternoon. I'm staying at the inn."

"No funny bizness right?" The woman eyed the 'doctor', she wasn't stupid.

"Huh? … Oh, no, no, no! I wear these robes for a reason, Ma'am. You don't have to worry. If you or your husband would like you are welcome to wait outside the room." The blue-eyed woman assured the mother that she was not some child molester or something.

Taro watched as the strange miko-doctor set up a plastic barrier and set up some equipment. He wasn't sure what to think. This looked like a lot of stuff to put on a fake arm. Then again, he'd only been to the doctors twice that he could remember. The first time when he was bitten by the snake, the second time when his arm got infected. He remembered that the second time he'd been to the hospital they had made him get undressed and had him wear the hospital gown like he was doing now. She told him he could keep his underpants on for now, but he'd have to take them off once she got started. He remembered having to do that at the hospital too, so he wasn't worried. But he was a bit worried that they weren't at a hospital…

There was a creepy looking old man standing in a corner polishing some needles. Taro could tell he was blind because of the man's glazed white eyes.

The man somehow knew that he had been staring at him as he cackled, "These? Heh-heh. No my dear boy, they're not for you. The woman is the one who will be attending to you this fine evening. Lost an arm did you? Hee-hee-heh. Makes me wonder what she will do."

"How did you know that?" How had the blind man known when the doctor in question hadn't mentioned his condition once?

"I can smell it…" The creepy man explained cryptically.

Suddenly Taro felt very uncomfortable with the creepy old man being in the room. Alas it seemed the man wasn't done speaking to him.

"She's put some sort of IV line in you, hasn't she? And making you drink that meat-like stuff."

The boy discretely took a sniff at the fluid the woman had asked him to drink. It didn't smell like meat at all…

"Finish drinking that and we'll get started." Taro jumped at the woman's sudden command.

"Yes, Doctor." Grimacing the child finished the cherry-flavored drink.

"Good boy. Now come and lie down on this table and we'll get started. Your miracle is about to begin."

Wincing at the very bright lights the woman had set up, Taro did as the woman said.

"Now then, I'm going to put you to sleep. Breathe deeply. If you are like my other patients you are going to laugh and giggle, don't worry-that's normal."

The first thing he noticed about the air he was now inhaling was very cold. For no reason he felt the urge to laugh.

The patient laughed until he fell asleep. Now she could get started once she put a urinary catheter in- regenerating limbs took time. And with two joints this was going to be a long night.

"Now Biwamaru-sama, I'll show you what I can do." With that the genius surgeon took up her scalpel.

Biwamaru smelt the coppery scent of blood as the woman began her work. He wasn't quite sure what she was going to do for the missing limb. Perhaps she was attaching a prosthetic.

It wasn't until he felt the woman's power and the sudden change in the air did he realize what she was doing.

She was building an actual flesh and bone arm for the boy.

Incredible. What she was doing was beyond the abilities of acupuncture. Beyond modern medicine too.

And her power. He had known she was powerful from the moment he smelled her, but this was an entire new level to holy energy as he knew it!

He had come across many people with unique powers before, but she was the most extraordinary by far.

She had not been lying when she said she had learned to harness her abilities. He had a hunch that this was only a small portion of how much power she had.

Just the feel to this power was indescribable, so very warm and… pure.

He had expected the supposed 'Female Black Jack' to be as cold and bloodthirsty as her namesake. Red Queen may act like the man but her way of surgery was the exact opposite of Black Jack's.

It was seven long hours before the woman was finished.

"I'm wrapping it up now. Surgery complete!"

Red Queen had regrown the boy's arm completely.

"We'll have to wait until he wakes up tomorrow to see if the new appendage works. What time is it? 3am. I started around 8 so it took seven hours. A new record for me. Thirty minutes faster. Won't be long until I get it down to four hours, but I'd like to make it in three if possible…" She rambled slightly from her slightly lethargic and power-drained state.

It wasn't until midday that Taro woke up. The first thing the boy noticed was that he was sleeping in a very fluffy futon. It was like sleeping on a cloud compared to the old one that he shared with his brother and sisters.

The next thing that he noticed was that his arm was itchy. He knew it couldn't really be itchy as there was no actual arm. Phantom pains a neighbor had called them.

He glanced down at his 'new fake arm'. It was wrapped in bandages, but Taro thought the outline looked like a real arm. The nice Miko-sensei must have given him a really good fake arm, not one of those metal hook arms.

"Incredible…" the man murmmered softly as he took the arm in his hands, he could smell nothing wrong with the appendage.

"Now Taro-kun, I need you to follow some directions for me." The boy nodded numbly as he stared at the arm.

"Tell me if you feel a soft or sharp feeling." Kagome explained as she slowly dragged the end of a capped pen down the boy's arm and intermittently prodding with the tip.

"Sharp… soft… sharp… sharp… soft." Taro told the miko, still unable to believe that this wasn't some sort of dream.

Shyly Taro stared at the woman, wondering if she was an angel from Heaven who had come to grant his wish. He decided it must be so, even if he couldn't see any wings that the priest at the temple said angels had. The miko-sensei had eyes that were as blue as the sky- a sky she _surely _flew in with her wings when she was with Kami-sama!

Unaware of her new _otherworldly_ status in the boy's mind Kagome continued her neurological assessment of the regrown arm. "Good. Now I want you to hold my hands and squeeze as hard as you can." She told the boy. Pleased that the grip seemed to be even Kagome told him he could stop.

"Your parents are out in the hall, want to see them yet?" She asked as she stood up and straitened her robes a bit. Opening the door Kagome let the two adults into the room with a smile, "It went very well. I think you'll be pleased."

"MA! PA! LOOK! LOOK!" The boy exclaimed as he wriggled the fingers before making a fist showing his parents the new arm the miko-sensei had given him.

"Mah arm! Ma! Pa! It's REAL! It's really real!"

"Mah boy! Oh, mah boy!" The father wept as he hugged his son.

"Iza miracle!" The woman sobbed as she collapsed to the floor repeating the phrase over and over again.

It wasn't long before many of the townsfolk came to the inn to see the 'miracle' that had taken place there. Allowing Kagome the chance to slip off through the crowd rather pleased with her good deed. Leaving the town where a little boy Taro would forever believe that he had met a tenshi who had granted him a miracle until the day he died.

She was a bit disappointed that she couldn't seem to find Biwamaru-sama, but figured that perhaps it was for the best she thought as she shifted her pack onto her back as she started off down the road that would lead her to the tengu.

Kagome was startled when a creepy laugh came from behind a tree ahead of her.

"Walk with me a while, would you my dear?" Biwamaru asked as he followed the extraordinary young woman out of the town.

Giving the man a smile she knew he couldn't see Kagome kindly told him, "I'd like that very much, Biwamaru-sama."

With that the blind acupuncturist and the Miko-sensei strolled down the path together for a few hours as Biwamaru tried to explain his ability as best he could to Kagome. When they parted the emaciated man decided he liked this Red Queen much better than Black Jack. He'd be sure to let her namesake know it too, the next time he saw the man.

**So how was it? How do you like my accents, I think they're pretty realistic- at least phonetically! Please leave a review to help my writing!**


	4. Red Queen and the Boy Robot

**~``` I figured if Black Jack has a perpetually child assistant, Shouldn't his counterpart, Red Queen have one too?**

**Gah! I noticed the site messed up my spacing in the last chapter! Hope that doesn't happen again this time! My apologies if it does!**

**Red Queen and the Boy Robot**

"Was that a meteor?" Kagome sat up in her sleeping bag as she saw the smoke rising from the impact zone.

Kagome was currently trekking through a lush tropical rain forest, following a lead that said there was an isolated youkai tribe someplace deep in the jungle. She had received a note written on a large leaf from one of her informants.

Unfortunately she had to use youkai to act as go-betweens for other youkai, spreading the word of a Miko who could save lives. The go-betweens she had contracted were all very much like Jaken –the toad demon who had followed Sesshoumaru-sama personality-wise with one major difference, these demons were very greedy.

But they did their job well. Any time one of them got too greedy, Kagome would inconspicuously remind them that she was still a miko with the power to destroy them.

She had been searching the dense rainforest for about two months now with no sign of the tribe that had requested her aid.

There was no doubt that she was more grateful than ever to have her powers. Her miko ki was the only thing keeping her safe and untouched by the infinite bugs and parasites that would make her deathly ill. She had no idea why this was but the Miko knew better than to look into this gift horse's mouth.

Kagome couldn't resist her curiosity to check out the crash site after packing up her small makeshift camp. It didn't take long to find the site, considering it was now a bare space surrounded by the endless rainforest.

Letting out a low whistle at the damaged earth, Red Queen stood on the edge of the crater looking down at the space rock. Probably not the smartest idea, seeing as the edge she was standing on decided to crumble beneath her feet. Letting out a startled yelp, the miko soon found herself lying face down at the bottom of the crater.

Pushing her self up on her hands and knees she realized that she was literally right next to the extraterrestrial object. There was no way in hell she was going to touch that thing! 'What if there's some kind of bacteria in that thing?'

Years of experience and med school had taught the young woman one thing: never touch anything that you don't know. It was almost always a trap or trouble.

Reaching into her travel pack, she pulled out a pair of latex gloves. She should at least take a small sample to be analyzed later. Pulling out a scalpel and collection jar Kagome approached the foreign object just as she would approach a major invasive surgery.

Carefully chinking off a small sample Kagome found something quite unexpected underneath; it looked like glass! Carefully sealing her sample, Kagome cautiously began to chip away at the black substance around the glass. After about two arduous hours later Kagome could see a glimpse of what was incased in the glass, or at least she thought it was glass…

Beneath the glass was what looked like a small foot! "Is there someone trapped inside? But what if it's an alien? What if it wants to eat my brain?" Kagome asked no one in particular as she distanced herself away from the object.

"But what if it IS a person? They'll suffocate if they haven't already!"

Staring at the cylindrical object Red Queen made her choice: she would at least uncover as much of the rock as she could and then go from there. As the dawn came Kagome was still working hard.

As she chipped away the rock Kagome could eventually see more and more of the creature beneath the glass. It looked like a child!

It was midday when the exhausted woman finally finished her work. Panting Kagome eyed the boy beneath the glass.

"Well it looks humanoid… So what do I do now?" She mulled over her dilemma as she ate a ration bar from her bag.

Red Queen stared at the figure trapped in the glass capsule for a good ten minutes before making up her mind. Sighing she stood up and grabbed an item from her bag. Making her way to the glass she opened the bottle of disinfectant and began to wipe the glass with it. She wasn't taking any chances, and planned on soaking the creature in the glass with it too.

She had decided she was going to break the glass at the bottom towards the thing's feet. Grabbing the small foldable camping shovel she had in her pack Kagome set to work on breaking the glass.

/ Two hours later and a dangerously angry miko/

"Unbelievable! Two hours and not even a scratch! What the hell is this stuff?" She roared as she brandished the shovel wildly striking the object at random. The enraged woman halted when a small clink came from the glass. There was a thin ring of metal across the middle of the tube that seemed to serve as an opening.

A hiss sounded in the air as gasses escaped the small opening. Kagome waited until the sound had stopped, fearing possibly toxic gas before trying to open the glass.

Finally freeing the trapped figure from the glass, Kagome carefully disinfected it before studying her hard earned 'prize'. It looked like a young human boy no older than 8 wearing what looked to be black briefs that had a ring of green at the top and bright red boots.

The woman had found out that the briefs seemed to be attached to the child as if the garment had been painted on.

The next thing Kagome realized was there was no pulse and that he was icy to the touch. That had frightened her as a doctor and she had attempted to resuscitate the boy.

But nothing happened. That caused the young woman to beak down crying. She had tried so hard! She had wasted a night and a day to freeing the child only to find it was dead!

Still sobbing Kagome leaned over the body and began to limply beat her fist against the child's chest. But instead of the dull, fleshy thunk that hitting a human body would produce, the child's chest gave a hollow, metallic sound.

Blinking at the strange noise Kagome placed an ear on the boy's chest and gave a firm tap. The hollow sound reached her ears once more.

Confused now, Kagome began to look over the body once again but this time with the eyes of a professional surgeon.

Slowly she began to pick out some very big flaws. The boy's hair was not actual hair, and now as she concentrated she realized the child's skin was not actual skin, having an almost unnoticeable stiffness and rubbery feel. The boy's proportions were smooth like a doll's.

Even when she stretched the skin on his chest the doctor could feel no ribs, or any organ for that matter!

"So is it some sort of doll?" Kagome wondered as she continued to examine her find. She had found an almost unnoticeable ridge in the center of the boy's chest. So using a scalpel for leverage, she was able to pull open a square opening in the chest.

Kagome nearly screamed at what she saw. It was a machine! The opening on the boys' chest revealed an insanely complex jungle of metal and wires.

Finding her voice to speak Kagome stuttered out, "A robot? Where in the world did it come from?"

Kagome wasn't sure what to do with the confirmed robot. This was like something out of a science-fiction novel. Sure she dealt with unimaginable things all the time, but this was an entirely different realm! Things like artificial intelligence and robots like this simply did not exist!

Her lot was in supernatural, fantastic happenings, not close encounters of the 3rd kind!

Demons yes, aliens no.

But here it was, right in front of her. As much as she wanted to leave it there, her conscience told her not too. After all, she could only imagine what would happen if it fell into the wrong hands. Wars and turmoil were bad enough right now, the world didn't need robots to add to the already volatile mess.

She was already the guardian of one dangerous object, she reminded herself placing a hand on her hip where the jewel had been reabsorbed. Surely she could handle a second object!

Hefting the robot child onto her back, the doctor made her way out of the crater.

It had been three days since she found the robot child and it seemed that she was going to have to give up on finding this youkai settlement. She simply couldn't go on, and she seemed to be wasting time that she could be using at youkai settlements that she KNEW existed. It was just as she had figured out where the nearest human town was (sensing life force) she felt a brush of youkai against her own energy.

Blue eyes burning with a new determination she headed in that direction. Hopefully she wasn't too late!

After walking for what seemed like hours, Doctor Kagome Higurashi finally found the remote youkai village she had been searching for the last two months. The moment she came within two feet of the village entrance, Kagome found herself surrounded by what she supposed were sentries.

However Kagome had had plenty of experience with approaching these isolated and rather backward villages. First she needed to show she was not a threat. So moving with a practiced slowness Kagome began to unarm herself. She took off her bow and quiver first and waited a moment before pulling the vines she had used to secure the robot child she had found to her. She slowly brought the 'child' in front of her before proceeding to untie the knots before gently lowering the boy to the rainforest floor.

Standing tall once more the Doctor slipped her pack off her shoulders, before slowly reaching into the pack to pull out a zip block bag. It was the request letter she had received; she had placed it in the bag to protect it from the rainforest.

Slowly pulling the letter out she extended her hand out for anyone to take it. One of the tiger demons reached forward as the others extended their weapons towards Kagome as though daring her to move. The demon slowly brought the leaf-letter to his feline nose inspecting the scents upon it.

Kagome could see a brief flash of recognition in the youkai's eyes, he seemed to know who one of the scents on the letter.

Growling out something in some youkai tongue, the rest of her welcome party lowered their weapons. The letter-bearer motioned for the doctor to follow him. Kagome gave a slight nod and left her stuff including the robot boy, knowing that the rest of the group would collect her things and hopefully not go through her bags.

At least she kept her medical equipment under a seal, meaning at least her tools would be safe while her food, underwear, and various camping/survival gear would not.

Hopefully her underwear would not end up being considered a stylish headdress that had convenient holes for ones ears, like they had in the past.

She always brought trinkets and baubles such as shells and beads and even jewelry to be given as gifts to show that she was not hostile. But no, instead they wanted the panties or in their minds 'the really neat hat'.

Kagome followed her guide as he lead her through the village, Kagome could almost feel the curiosity being generated by the village's inhabitants, which Kagome was sensing were mostly panthers and tigers.

Her guide stopped in front of what seemed to be the most ornate house in the village, she was guessing their leader or chief or perhaps a shaman lived there.

The demon made a motion for her to wait at the beaded entrance, which she obliged. She could hear the faint mutterings of a conversation before the sentry came back out to bring her into the hut.

"Greetings, healer." An ancient voice graveled out in English. Thankfully Kagome had learned English thanks to the Japanese school system that made it a required course, and the fact that she needed to know the language to treat many of her patients.

"An honor, sir." Kagome greeted the very old tiger demon.

"Ha ha, it seems you know the language too, healer. Were your people forced to learn it too?"

In that moment Kagome realized this youkai had been there during the colonization of the British Empire almost 200 years ago.

Deciding to keep thing simple, yet true she replied, "Yes but by a different group speaking the same language."

Deciding to get to the point of why she had been called here, "May I ask if you are my patient? I am a healer but I can not prevent death from old age, just prolong it for a very short while."

"No healer can cure death from old age, but I am not the one in need of your treatment. Forgive me if I bamboozled you, my dear. Rather it is my great-grandchild. Once a strong and hardy lad he began to grow weak. The constellations changed and still he did not recover no mater the potions and elixirs given by our shaman."

"Can you tell me the symptoms, sir?" When the demon did not reply she mentally kicked herself, he probably hadn't spoken English in a long time and did not remember certain words, "Can you tell me how he is sick? Is his skin hot to the touch? Does he have trouble breathing? Things like that, sir."

"I do not recall the words needed to tell. It is best you see him." The ancient demon said as he slowly hobbled out of the hut with Kagome and the sentry following.

"Sir, may I first go to gather tools that will help me find out what is wrong with your great-grandson?" Kagome asked the elder who nodded in consent barking an order to the sentry before continuing to where the patient was.

The sentry proceeded to lead her to where her things had been taken. Her things had been placed in the center of the village where a stone platform had been built. Villagers were clamoring all around her things, in awe at the strange items. Her guide gave a growl telling the crowd to let her through.

Kagome swiftly hopped up onto the platform before reaching into her bag to bring out a sealed suitcase that held all of her equipment. Before she could leap off of the platform a small pawed hand reached out to tug on her red pants. A small panther demon (she couldn't tell the gender) was mewling something to her while pulling on the miko's clothes.

She really didn't have time to be playing with village children at the moment but the child was persistent. Grumbling Red Queen allowed the kitten(?) to lead her, the child pulled urgently on the woman to the other side of the platform where she realized they must have placed the robot boy.

Indeed a group of children and a few worried women were crowed around the boy. The children were poking the robot as if hoping this strange visitor would wake up to play with them. The women seemed concerned as they probably realized the 'child visitor' was not breathing.

Kneeling next to the robot she made an annoyed sound, before pantomiming that the boy could sleep through the worst storm imaginable and that he was fine.

The children seemed to buy the pantomime story before running off to play elsewhere; they would just have to wait until the boy woke up. Waving off the concerned mothers as if not breathing was normal for her kind.

After sorting out the whole robot child mess, Dr. Higurashi was lead to her patient. Putting on her gloves Kagome began to give her patient a full exam with the medical equipment she had.

The most noticeable symptom was that her patient had pure white fur which his grandfather adamantly claimed that it had not always been that color. Her patient was also very small for the age given to her. He looked like a young teenager when he should have been a full-fledged adult. There was obvious malnutrition due to the loss of appetite. This sounded very similar to the case she had read about a famous white zoo lion, named Luna-Luna if she was not mistaken. The problem was in the patient's brain.

This would be very difficult, but she was pretty sure she could do it. She was average at brain surgery, but she was getting better with practice. She had performed brain surgery on domestic cats and once on a zoo lion before, so she hoped this would be similar.

Doing a second check using her miko ki as a very crude form of x-rays, she was able to confirm that all of the other symptoms were secondary and not the main cause.

"Your great grandson had an abnormal pituitary gland in his brain, but it could also be a tumor. In order to cure him I will need to open his head to remove the problem." Kagome explained slowly to the chief, knowing that this culture most likely knew nothing about invasive surgery.

"You will open his head while he is awake?" the leader asked astonished that the healer would dare tell him such a vulgar treatment.

"No, he will be in a deep sleep from special fumes I will have him inhale. I will also give him special elixirs that will keep him from feeling pain." She explained in a gentle voice.

"Will it save him?" the elder asked in a desperate tone.

"Yes. If all goes well he will recover and live a long life." The miko said as she watched the elder tenderly hold his great grandchild's thin paw.

"Very well. Do what you must to save him."

Nodding Kagome got to work with setting up an adequate area to perform the surgery. She had also hooked her patient up to an IV and nutrients.

Now all she needed was blood for a transfusion which shouldn't be too hard considering cats only had 3 possible blood types: A, B, and AB. The chief had announced that their visitor would need blood to help cure their next-in-line leader. Kagome spent the rest of the evening checking blood types and getting the correct blood taken from donors.

She had made it worth the blood donor's while by having fresh fruit juice made for them as well as the strange yet delightfully sweet circles she handed to them to eat (cookies). They agreed the treat and honor of helping their future leader was well worth the shock of watching the precious red fluid be taken from one by a strange and clear vine as well as the light-headedness.

Feeling she had enough blood, having taken from 6 donors, Kagome proceeded to the hut she had been invited to stay in as an honored guest. She needed to rest up for the large surgery she was going to complete. It was times like this she wished she had an assistant…

Waking up at dawn from pure habit the infamous doctor removed her old friend's red robe as well as the white miko top, donning her surgeon's frock. Swiftly the woman tied up her hair and placed her surgical cap on, as well as putting a facemask on.

Making her way to the 'surgical' hut Kagome could see the Chief already there, he had probably not gotten much sleep the previous night. Kagome reminded him that she would need a constant supply of boiled water to keep her instruments pure, and that she was to not be disturbed no matter what as a single mistake would kill the future leader.

Stepping into the plastic covered sanitation tent she had set up, Kagome saw her patient awake for the first time. He said something to her that she did not understand and went about setting up the local anesthesia. Placing the mask over the demon's mouth Red Queen decided to speak, "Don't worry. You're going to be much better after I'm done."

With her patient under anesthesia, the miraculous surgeon got to work, determined to save this future leader's life.

It was 9 long hours later that she put in the very last of the sutures and then proceeding to heal the sutures with her miko ki working alongside the man's own energy. It had been a successful surgery that perhaps no one but Black Jack could perform under the same conditions. That is if the man knew anything about youkai physiology… which she somehow doubted.

After cleaning up and packing away most of her equipment, Kagome was ready to collapse but she knew she couldn't just yet- only one last thing to do. Sighing she made her way out of the hut to where she spotted the Elderly Leader and strangely enough the robot boy being perched on the old demon's lap.

Of course it seemed that the entire village was congregated behind their Chief and an oddly dressed youkai that seemed to be the village shaman.

Removing the surgical mask she offered the old youkai a smile, "It went great! He should be up in a day or two and we'll go from there. I'll go sleep now…" she muttered as she staggered off to the hut she was staying in.

After removing her bloody surgical scrub and just barely managing to get her white top on Kagome Higurashi was out like a light.

The elderly chief relayed the healer's good news to his people before motioning a servant to take the strange sleeping boy to his mother.

The chief was now certain the boy surely took after his mother as neither one awoke despite the large and loud celebration held in honor of the healer's success.

True to the Doctor's word the future leader woke up two days later demanding food. The healer stayed another month to watch over her patient's swift recovery. The man was a completely different person er… tiger youkai.

Today would be her last day in the youkai village, she needed to get back to the modern world. What the doctor didn't know was that the village was planning to give her a special gift, a small glowing blue sphere that reminded the girl disturbingly of the cursed jewel within her body.

The village shaman had been able to sense the jewel within her body and had deduced that the sphere was what gave her life and that her son did not yet have a 'life sphere' of his own as they were _surely_ quite rare.

Therefore they would give the woman the sphere that had fallen from the sky over a thousand years ago. Surely the gods had given them the stone for this very reason, to pay back a healer with a life for a life.

Kagome had graciously accepted the gift saying that her 'son' would forever thank them for their generosity.

It had been very difficult getting home or more specifically getting past security thanks to her dead robot companion.

It seemed that she was now on the 'suspicion' list of the four major airlines she had traveled through and now swore that the next time she needed to fly she was going to find a small airfield with a pilot that wouldn't ask questions. Or maybe she should get her own privet jet?

And to make matters even worse she couldn't remember for the life of her where she had parked her car four months ago!

After finally arriving home to a dust enshrouded house the normally patient miko was about to blow a fuse.

"I trekked trough the nasty, humid, rainforest. Saved a youkai village's future leader. And what did I get? Some creepy jewel and a defective alien robot kid! Stinkin' airport security! Stupid dust collecting house! Argh!" the young woman vented out at the top of her lungs.

As she took the second jewel in her possession out from her bra, she glared at it challenging it to pull some of the crazy tricks those darned jewels like to play. While she couldn't sense any taint in the jewel, and any that had been there had most certainly been purified with her touch.

Looking to her robot 'child' Kagome gave a heavy sigh, "Well I guess they did technically give this to you. A jewel hidden in a broken robot child is a pretty good hiding spot." She muttered as she opened the robot's chest and promptly dropping the blue sphere into the robot.

"Well, I'm gonna go take a nice long bubble bath… I guess I still need to give you a name, huh? Anyways don't move from that spot now!" She giggled as she sat the robot down at her kitchen table.

As the raven-haired doctor soaked in a luxurious hot bath, she was unaware of what was happening in her kitchen at that very moment.

The second jewel began to glow brightly as it fused itself into the robot child's power receptor, becoming in a word an unlimited power source for the pure child robot.

Normally magic and technology did not function well together, but it seemed that this little robot was an exception. He was designed to be a robot with a soul.

The dormant robot started to hum slightly as it's body was reactivated with new energy, bringing the child back to life.

Sighing happily now that she had taken a great bath Kagome decided to head for her kitchen in search of something to drink.

"Damn, shoulda picked up some food and milk when I was in town!" she grumbled to herself when she realized she had nothing, er- nothing _safe_ that is…

Grabbing a cup from a cupboard she went to the sink to fill it with water. It took the miko a moment to realize someone or something was staring at her.

Kagome leapt backwards spitting out her water as her supposed 'dead robot' blinked at her from its seat at the kitchen table.

"H-How are you awake? You are awake aren't you?"

The robot did not reply but did send steam hissing out of his nostrils and ears, indicating he was now fully activated.

Taking a few steps back Kagome decided to try to reason with it, and to hopefully keep herself from being killed. "Do you know who I am? I'm your Ma-Mother."

She had nearly said Master instead of Mother but had quickly changed her mind as several sci-fi movies involving AI robots came to her mind. In most of the films the mad scientist who created the AI robot always introduced themselves as the robots Creator or Master.

And in nearly all the films the robot would become smart enough to wonder why they had to obey their master and would dispose of the human that had created them. She certainly did not want to make that mistake so had chosen the term Mother that had a far more positive association than the term Master.

It didn't hurt that the youkai village she had returned from believed the boy to be her child so she had already gotten somewhat used to referring to the robot as her 'son'.

The miko had a hunch that the blue jewel she had carelessly tossed into the robot had something to do with it's sudden activation.

Opening her suitcase that had been hazardously thrown onto her kitchen table, the woman grabbed some tools to confirm her suspicions.

"Now be a good boy and open your chest, please. Mother needs to see that your insides are working properly." Kagome said in a kind voice as she knelt down so that she could inspect the boy more easily. The robot seemed to understand what she was asking and twitched its right hand until it seemed to have enough control to open its chest.

Taking her loupe and a small flashlight the woman began to inspect the boy's open chest cavity searching for any sort of clue. While she could not make any sense of the wires, Kagome did find something useful. On the back of the opened chest-plate, next to a few gages that she assumed indicated power level or oil, there was a tiny inscription that strangely looked very, very similar to Japanese characters.

If it had been Japanese characters they would be read as 'Tobio', an interesting find considering the child had apparently come from space.

Closing the robot boy's chest Kagome gave the robot a smile.

"Tobio. Your name is now Tobio. Can you smile for me?" Kagome asked as she put her hands tenderly on the boy's stiff and cold shoulders.

Slowly but surely the newly named 'Tobio' twitched it's lips upward in a cute child-like smile.

"Very good! Now can you call me Mama? Go on, call me Mama!" she encouraged the robot just as she would a human child.

"m… m-m-Maaa… Maaa…" Came a young boy's voice.

**Oh **_**yes**_** I did! Show of hands, who expected Astro/Atomu to show up in this fic? **

**Be honest now! **

**Don't worry- Red Queen and Black Jack will be meeting in the next chapter face to face!**

**Bwahahaha!**


	5. The Trials of Raising a Boy Robot

**For those of you who don't know (as one of my reviewers pointed out) Tobio is INDEED Astro Boy/Atomu. **

_**He is NOT an OC!**_

**Here's some Astro Boy history for those who don't know…**

**Tobio Tenma was the little boy who Astro was based off of. Dr. Tenma (Astro's creator/father and the **_**real**_** Tobio's father) built Astro to replace Tobio when the real boy was killed in an accident. **

**At first the grieving father treats the robot like his own but soon comes to realize that a robot can never truly replace his son and according to various Astro Boy timelines he abandons the robot Tobio, sells him to a circus, or gets separated from the robot on a cruise. In basically all of the various versions the robot Tobio is found by Dr. O'Shay/ Dr. Elephun/ Occhanmizu-Hakase (sp?) and is renamed Astro/Atomu.**

**My logic in calling Astro 'Tobio' comes from the fact that I felt it was possible for Dr. Tenma to have written Tobio as an identifier on the inside of the robot, as he was the man to create him-thus giving him the authority to name the robot. Why on earth would the name 'Astro' be engraved on a robot the man had named 'Tobio'?**

**Plus the name is more normal than 'Astro', who in their right mind would name their child 'Astro'? Especially since his newfound 'mother' is a semi-traditional Japanese woman who would most likely **_**not**_** give her child a foreign name even if she herself has an English nickname.**

**Does that make some sense now? **

**If not PM me and I'll try to explain it so that everyone understands.**

Kagome had decided to raise the robot boy as a human child. She decided to take some time from her hectic life as an infamous doctor in order to educate her new charge.

Tobio had been almost like a blank slate for the doctor to mold as she saw fit. Just like a newborn child, Kagome had had to teach the boy to walk properly, as well as how to speak.

As far as she could tell, her plan of raising Tobio was going quite well. But there were definite snags that interfered with Tobio's 'humanization'. The first being the boy's strength. The child had yet to control his strength and had broken quite a few things around her home.

The second problem had come when she had read a 'potty' book to him, trying to explain how human's bodies worked. She wasn't sure if robots could go to the bathroom, but had decided to include potty training to her assimilation list just to be safe.

The miko would have _never_ read the book to him had she known he had machine guns in his rear. It had been extremely hard to explain to the plumber/repair man why her toilet and bathroom were destroyed by bullets.

Thankfully, she had come up with a fantastic excuse that would have done her deceased grandfather proud.

The doctor quickly found out as time went on that Tobio's 'butt guns' were the least of her problems. The boy had a laser that he could shoot from his index finger, could apparently see through many metal objects, and his eyes could be used as headlights, pun not intended.

Perhaps the most startling power she had seen her 'son' display was seeing his hands and feet change into rockets, allowing the boy to fly through the sky. Of course she had told him time and time again that he shouldn't use his special gifts in front of other people besides her. When Tobio had asked why Kagome told him that bad people would come and take him from her and do terrible things to him. This response seemed to make the child deathly afraid and Kagome couldn't figure out why.

So to try to console the poor boy Kagome told the boy she also had powers she had to hide from other humans. And that when they were alone he could use his abilities.

The child's intelligence and ability to learn was truly incredible. Tobio seemed to be programmed to absorb knowledge like a veritable metal sponge.

She was considering having the boy learn multiple foreign languages so that she could have a free translator. He was also a walking calculator, spouting off insane levels of mathematics that she could never hope to begin to understand.

The child was also a prodigy of mechanical items, not surprising, as he _was_ a machine himself. She debated whether or not to have Tobio build a private jet for her, but she thought better of it. She'd rather obtain one through hard work than forcing a robot child to build one. But she wouldn't complain if he decided to build one on his own…

Thankfully, no matter how much he learned Tobio retained his child-like innocence.

!/!

After two months of intense human assimilation, Kagome deemed her 'son' ready for real human interaction.

Today she would be taking Tobio with her to go shopping at the nearby town. She had done several 'test-runs' by taking Tobio with her when she had been called for her veterinary skills.

After the 'butt gun' fiasco, she learned that she couldn't leave him alone just yet. And although animals didn't seem to like Tobio, the boy was proving to be a great help to the doctor as she treated patients.

"Tobio! Time to get up! I'm leaving in 20 minutes with or without you!" Kagome yelled from the kitchen as she prepared breakfast for herself.

Tobio _could_ eat, but it seemed to be just for show, as he had to empty out his stomach afterwards.

The miko heard the sound of the boy rushing to get dressed. Tobio soon came hopping into the kitchen trying to get his head through the head hole. Chuckling at the boy's antics the woman moved to help him, "Let me get it Tobio, we don't want you to accidentally rip your nice new clothes."

Kagome couldn't resist dressing the child up for his first big debut into society. The robot had a red long-sleeved polo on with tan shorts that showed off the boy's boots. She had made sure the shirt would match his boots.

"Mama, can we go yet?" Tobio whined, he was very eager to see other people and the things he had read about.

"Not just yet, I have to put your wig and finger nails on." Kagome was getting very good at the whole 'mom' thing.

Just like the 8-year-old Tobio was designed to be, he fidgeted as Kagome put the last fingernail on.

Looking over her robot 'son' Kagome deemed his appearance to be perfect. Apart from touching him, there was no way to tell that Tobio was not a normal boy. Well either that or watching him accidentally break something with his strength.

Tobio was having a wonderful time shopping with his Mama. This place was very different than his mother's house and clinic! There were so many people and things to see Tobio thought his electrobrain would overload from all the data his mind was constantly processing. He was constantly pointing to things and asking questions. But he never let go of his mother's hand or red hakaima if she was using her hands. Tobio wasn't sure of the reason but something told him to stay close by or else she might forget him.

News that Red Queen was back from her 6 month absence spread quite fast. In no time at all the female surgeon was swamped with calls and letters from all over the world demanding her treatment.

And with the return of Red Queen so did the wild gossip and intrigue. And unfortunately Tobio was starting to be drawn into the rumors. The moment Red Queen saw and article on her son in a tabloid, she had jumped on it- by calling in a few favors from some of her, ahem, _shadier_ clients. Silencing the reporters had only lead to more rumors. Red Queen had never spoken up against the articles targeting her, so why had she reacted to the article targeting her child?

!~!~!

Tobio was sitting almost unnervingly still as he waited outside the OR where his mother was performing surgery on a patient. He was very bored… He was tempted to pick at his fake fingernails, but thought better of it. He didn't want Mama to scold him.

The boy robot tilted his head as he contemplated on how to alleviate his boredom. He should ask his Mama for a handheld video-game, he'd seen other kids play them and they had looked like they were having fun. Nodding to himself Tobio decided he would ask his mother when they got home.

Being as bored as he was Tobio turned up his hearing, deciding it would be fun to listen in on conversations. After listening to an old demented woman who thought she was married to Elvis Presley for a while Tobio listened for something else interesting.

Unfortunately it was very late at night so not many patients were awake. He mostly heard boring things like nurses talking to other nurses to give this much medicine to patient so-and-so.

Boring adult talk… Just as Tobio was ready to turn down his hearing he heard his mother's name. For some reason everyone called his Mama Red Queen-sensei instead of Higurashi-sensei. Tobio knew this because his last name was Higurashi too, and Mama had taught him to call people by their last name.

Listening in to the conversation Tobio could hear what they were saying:

"Gosh, Red Queen-sensei is really here?" "Hai she also brought a little boy with her." "Red Queen has children?" "I dunno, but I was told he's a real cutie-pie!" "Think we can go see him?" "I guess… But he's probably asleep."

!

It was another day and yet another surgery. This time Tobio had come prepared. The boy had decided he wanted to carry around a cool bag like his mother did. However his bag didn't contain medical instruments, instead it had stuff to keep him occupied from boredom.

He liked to call it Tobio's Bored-Aid Kit. He had plenty of fun things to play with, coloring books, a few picture books, a stuffed bear and a few other items.

He had even gotten the handheld video game device he had wanted along with plenty of games to go with it!

The boy was halfway to the third level boss when a huge commotion came from down the hall. A frightening man who looked very much like the bad-guy from his favorite TV show* was running alongside the gurney leading it to an operating room a few rooms from his mothers'.

A girl was clinging to the scary man's cape begging him to let her go with him. The man just shrugged off his cape while pointing to a waiting bench.

Tobio knew what that gesture meant, Mama tended to use it when he accidentally broke things.

The boy watched as hospital staff ran around like headless chickens trying to prepare for the surgery. Must have been an emergency or an accident…

As the drama died down Tobio saw the little girl climbing up onto the bench across from the other OR to wait. She looked like she was his age!

'I've never spoken to anybody my age before… Maybe if I share some of my toys with her she'll play with me?'

Tobio shyly made his way down the hall to the girl. Not sure if he was supposed to say something first or wait until she spoke first, Tobio remained silent but gave a shy smile.

When the girl remained silent Tobio felt he should explain why he was there. "Um… I saw you sitting here and wondered if you'd like to play with one of my toys while you wait…"

"I don't play with baby toys!" the girl yelled at him, startling him a bit with her anger.

Tobio was confused by that declaration. He had seen baby toys while shopping with his mother; they tended to be rather simple in design and usage. All of his toys were designed for usage by children ages 5 to 10.

Deciding to ignore the strange comment Tobio decided to try to make conversation by starting off, "Erm… My Mama's doing surgery in that OR room down there" he pointed to the room in emphasis before continuing, "Did you know she's the greatest surgeon in the _whole_ world?"

That had certainly caught the girl's attention as she scowled deeply, "Sensei's the best surgeon! Your mother is _nothing_ compared to him!"

A strange feeling rose in the robot's chest when his mother was insulted, "No, my Mama's the best. All of her patients say so!"

"You take that back!" The little girl roared as she stood up on the bench, her small fists clenched in rage.

Raising an eyebrow Tobio innocently asked, "Why? How do you even take back words?"

Tobio was speechless as the girl launched herself at him, tackling the boy to the ground in a spectacular move. Sitting on the boy's stomach the brown-haired girl began grabbing and punching at him wildly in a savage manner.

"Sensei's the best! You hear me?" she howled as she pummeled Tobio.

It was not often that hospital security had to be called to break up two children from fighting. Or rather: one child attempting to beat the crap out of the other while said other tried to escape.

To say that each surgeon was surprised to be escorted to the security office almost immediately after stepping out of their respective operating room was an understatement.

Each believed they were being escorted to be arrested by the powers that be.

/~/

Black Jack had been the first out of the operating room as his surgery had not been nearly as complex as he had anticipated it would be.

The scarred man raised an eyebrow as he took in the disheveled state of his ward. Pinoko's hair was a mess; two of the red ribbons she wore had been pulled out.

The left shoulder strap to her dress had been torn and the right sleeve of her shirt was missing. There was no need to tell him that she had been in a fight especially as she tried to give an innocent look.

Casting his sharp eyes to the other child he saw that the boy was worse off. The boy's hair was in chaos, sticking out in all directions. The boy's navy long-sleeved polo had been torn in several places and was missing a sleeve at the shoulder seam.

However neither child had any signs of lacerations from the scuffle. Black Jack knew the reason behind Pinoko's unmarred skin, but couldn't quite determine why the boy's skin was unbruised. The boy looked up at him for a moment before looking back down to his folded hands inconspicuously keeping his left thumb hidden from view.

The boy flinched as the door opened once more. A woman dressed in traditional miko garb stepped into the office, confusion clearly displayed on her face. Black Jack watched as emotion's flashed across her face as she took in the state of the little boy.

It only took a millisecond to recognize who the red-garbed female doctor was, it was his supposed counterpart: Dr. Red Queen.

/~/

As the two unlicensed doctors rather crummy luck would have it, a journalist was slinking around the hospital, having been informed by an inside source that Black Jack and Red Queen were at this hospital. To have an article on these two legends appearing at the same hospital would promise a rather generous paycheck.

He had signed in as a visitor visiting his grandmother who had broken a hip before sneaking off to meet his informant who would lead him to where the two doctors were.

Pressing his ear to the security's office door, Hammegg* could just barely catch the conversation but dutifully wrote down the conversation. He would have time to fill in the blanks and add juicy details later.

The main snippets he had been able to catch were as follows: "That boy is he…"

"Mnhmn. His name is Tobio." Came a woman's soft voice that sounded slightly cold.

"I see. Care to tell us why we are here? Red Queen and myself are very busy people…" The man's equally distant and harsh voice sounded.

"Uh, well it seems these two were fighting in the operating room hallway…" A sheepish sounding older man's voice admitted.

"Fighting! Tobio!" a woman's scolding voice could be heard.

"I didn't hit her! _Honest_ I didn't Mama!" A young boy's voice pleaded.

"Pinoko…" Came the gruff voice of Dr. Black Jack.

"Well he started it! He said his mother was the greatest surgeon in the world!" a little girl's voice cried out defensively.

The boy's voice became sorrowful, "… But I can only tell the truth…"

The woman gave an exasperated sigh, "Hold on a minute, I think I see the problem here. Tobio's telling the truth."

The little girl's voice interjected swiftly,"-BUT!"

"Hey, it is rude to interrupt. He's telling the truth because I'm the greatest he knows of." The woman explained calmly.

"So he's never heard of –" the man was cut off.

"… I see where she gets it from… But yeah, I've never told him about Black Jack-sensei. Must have slipped my mind…" The woman stated dismissively.

/~/

Inside the security office Black Jack felt a bit insulted that the woman seemed to think so little of him, waving off her mistake as though it were nothing.

He watched as the woman turned her attention back to the security officer. "I'll pay for any of the damage that they might of caused, just send the estimate to my hotel. Now Tobio tell the man you're sorry and that you won't do it again."

The boy detached himself from his mother's leg before bowing. "You're sorry and you won't do it again!"

Red Queen flinched at the boy's speech, "No Tobio, it's _'I'M_ sorry and _I_ won't do it again."

She quickly looked up to the security head tittering apologetically, "Please forgive him, he's still learning Japanese… Anyways my apologies, Black Jack-sensei, Pinoko-chan. Lets go Tobio."

With that the woman ushered the boy out of the room, unknowingly squishing an eavesdropper between the door and wall.

/

Later that evening Kagome answered a knock on her hotel door. Glancing out of the peephole in the door the miko was shocked to see who it was that had the gall to show up in the middle of the night. Reluctantly she opened the door slightly before demanding, "What do you want?"

The man reached beneath his black jacket causing Kagome to tense slightly, old self-defense habits died hard. Instead of a weapon of some sort, the man drew out a fat stack of cash.

"I don't need it." Kagome said as politely as she could when he held it out to her, "I said I would pay for the damages _myself_."

The woman made it clear that her honor would not let her accept money from a stranger. 'Especially when there might be strings attached.'

Realizing the woman wasn't about to take it Black Jack shrugged, "Ah well, if you won't take it I guess I'll just burn it…"

The only response he got was a slightly raised brow from her before she simply stated, "It's your money, you can do as you wish with it. Don't burn it in here though, you'll set off the fire alarm."

Kagome made a move to close the door.

"I ran into one of your patients." The dark doctor admitted as he stuck his foot in the door, keeping it from being closed, "Your work was of a very high caliber- I could barely see the incision marks."

"You know what they say, practice makes perfect." Kagome replied smoothly, not wanting to show her discomfort with his line of questioning.

"I couldn't help but notice your son. It would seem that he lacks a respiration rate… Could that have something to do with the reason you lost your pediatric license?" Black Jack insinuated, trying to get the woman to talk.

Pinoko had admitted to him earlier that evening that when she had attacked to other boy, it had felt like she had hit a brick wall and that the boy was like ice to the touch. At first he had merely written it off as her underdeveloped nerves but then he recalled the boy's countenance. It was subtle, nearly unnoticeable to the untrained eye; but the boy's body proportions were slightly off. Having built Pinoko's body Black Jack felt quite certain that the other child also possessed a synthetic body. But he couldn't be certain until he actually examined the child.

Not wanting this man to have any sort of power over her or her robot 'son', Kagome gave a small sneer, "Don't go placing your nose where it doesn't belong. Otherwise I might have to look into why your little girl didn't have a single bruise after striking my Tobio…"

She had no desire to share any sort of information with a man who had a worse reputation than her own, as far as she could tell he had earned it all on his own.

"Good evening, Dr. Black Jack." Kagome said with a tone of polite finality as she closed the hotel room door.

Black Jack mused on what he had learned from his very brief encounter with his newest female counterpart as he walked towards the hotel he and Pinoko were staying at. Earlier that day, in the security office, she had been professional and slightly pleasant. Though that may have been due to her child's presence he decided.

She was definitely guided by a set a morals, instilled by her faith no doubt- seeing as she wore a Miko's garb. He had been testing her when he had offered her the money to pay for the damage. Even people who presented themselves as upstanding citizens would have immediately protested the burning of money after having refused it. Dr. Red Queen had barely reacted.

This evening he had watched her emotions carefully trying to see what made the female doctor tick. She hadn't been hateful, merely wary and defensive. As he would be in a confrontational situation like he had placed the woman in.

All in all, Red Queen was quite an enigma.

~!~

Sighing Kagome decided to make herself a cup of tea in the microwave to soothe her slightly rattled nerves. Just why had Dr. Black Jack decided to pay her an unwanted visit like that? What ever his game was, she didn't want to get sucked into it.

Briefly Kagome contemplated that just _maybe_ the tabloid stories of the dark doctor being in love with her were true… Kagome shuddered violently at that thought. 'No! If anything he sees me as a threat, why else would he come and try to intimidate me like this?'

She dearly hoped that she would not have to deal with her namesake any time soon.

**Probably not the overly fluffy or admittance sort of meeting you were expecting, huh? To tell the truth I hate it when stories have the main character spill their guts about their life's story in the first few sentences of meeting a new character. It doesn't happen that way in real life!**

***Tobio's favorite TV show is going to be Big Mask which is shown on the Black Jack anime ep 13 (you can watch it on Crunchyroll)**

**# Hammegg is one of Tezuka's characters that he uses over and over again. Normally Hammegg is put in a thief-like/greedy/scum role.**

**Now then I need more reviews to keep me going!**


	6. Chapter 6 Halloween Special

**So it's a few days late… ah well… Happy Belated Halloween!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha or Black Jack**

**Kikyou revived. Halloween Terror!**

Four high school girls giggled as they sat in a cute little café after a long day at school.

"Hey, hey, you know what we should do? We'll be graduating soon, we need to have one last big adventure before we all go our separate ways!"

"You're right! But what should we do?"

"Oh! Hey, remember all those stories about some ogre with the magic kiln? The one's we heard when we were kids?" Mariko suddenly looked up from her iced coffee.

"So what?"

"So what? We should go see if we can find it! It's pretty popular nowadays to try to find out if local legends are true." The girl stated in an informative voice as she looked around the table at her friends.

"Why can't we just go to the graveyard and see if we can raise a spirit there? The ogre's kiln is just a story they tell kids to keep them from going into the mountains. There's supposed to be a bunch of abandoned mines up there." One of the girls complained slightly as she fiddled with the spoon for her icy desert. Chika would rather watch scary anime than hang around in a graveyard but still, an adventure did sound exciting.

"Anybody can go to some old graveyard! Think about it dummy! Wouldn't you rather say you searched for an ogre's enchanted kiln? And if we find it… We can see if the stories about it are true!" Mariko exclaimed.

"I don't know… There are abandoned mines, what if we fall into one?" The most timid of their group, Fumiko, brought up as she bit down on her straw.

"What's wrong Fumiko, chicken? Are you scared of an ogre?" Goaded Tomo.

Fumiko bristled at the accusation, she was just concerned for safety reasons! "I'm not scared!"

"Really? Well then it's settled! We're going to go search for the ogre's kiln this Sunday!"

"Why Sunday?" Chika asked.

"It's Halloween, doofus!" Tomo crowed as she struck what she thought was a cool pose.

"Halloween? But that's a Western holiday…" Mariko stated.

"It's supposed to be a day when magic and stuff is strongest, right? It should be easier to find an ogre witch's kiln on an auspicious holiday." Tomo reasoned as she sat back down from her 'cool' pose.

"That makes sense, so what do we need to do to get ready?"

" 'Kay… Tell your folks that we're going hiking and camping this weekend. We'll leave as soon as school lets out on Saturday (Japanese kids sometimes have half-days on Saturdays). I'll try to find some stuff for a séance if nothing else. Try to find out as much as you can on the kiln so we'll know where to look. Call if you find out anything. But remember, don't tell anyone!" Mariko exclaimed as they set up their plans.

"Don't forget your blankie, Fumiko. If you get scared you can hold my hand, hee-hee!"

"I'm NOT scared!"

With that the four friends parted, each determined to prepare for their 'last' great adventure.

If only they knew how true that would be…

/

Higurashi, Kagome aka. Red Queen was currently waiting for her next job. Business had been slow lately. A very odd occurrence for the trouble-magnet miko.

So now instead of exploring dark jungles in search of youkai tribes, or curing animals or children she was stuck at home, watching a Power Rangers marathon with her robot 'son'. Tobio on the other hand was ecstatic that his Mama didn't have to work.

Kagome was secretly praying for her phone to ring, anything would be better than this torture!

'You know, the Power Rangers have gone kinda downhill since I was a kid… Those one's actually had some good plot to them. These ones, yikes…' She mussed as she watched another flashy transformation.

Shifting her gaze to Tobio, it seemed he was totally absorbed- even going as far as to yelling at the tv when the 'bad guy' did something, well, bad.

If this was what made her son happy, she would suffer through this all-day-Power Ranger-Palooza and pretend to be enjoying it. She just wished that it hadn't started at 6 in the morning. Being woken by a hyper robot child was not a pleasant way to wake up. She had finally dragged herself out of bed when Tobio literally lifted the bed up, she'd prefer it if he didn't lift their furniture.

Yup, here she was one of the world's greatest surgeons sitting on her couch, still in her pajamas, watching Power Rangers…

She couldn't even read a book or new medical journal, Tobio had been very insistent that she watch this with him, making sure she was paying full attention to the shows.

It was cute really; during each commercial break Tobio would show her various Power Ranger 'moves'. He could pull them off pretty well, probably because he was a robot.

Regardless, the famed surgeon could sure use nice cup of coffee to wash down the 'I got up too early muggy-ness', and maybe some cereal too… She should see if Tobio wanted some too, even if he didn't need to eat technically.

'Next commercial break.' She decided as she watched yet another 'unbeatable bad guy' fall to the ground, vanquished.

"All right! Did you see that, Mama? So cool!" Tobio whipped his head towards her as he clenched his fists in excitement.

Kagome immediately put on a 100-watt smile in response, "I know! They're the best, huh?"

"Yup, they're the greatest in the whole world!" He declared as he opened his arms to emphasize 'the whole world'.

"Well, I need to use the bathroom. I'll be right back." She told the boy as she got up off the couch, " I'm going to get some cereal, want any?"

the child shook his head before sitting on the ground in front of the television.

"Oh, hurry up! You don't want to miss the next episode!" The robot pleaded as he turned his attention back to the television, anxiously waiting for the commercials to end.

The ex-time traveling miko was completely unaware of four girls that were about to find something that was better left forgotten.

/

"Okay, so I asked around and most of the stories seem to point to somewhere around here…" Mariko told her friends as she pointed to the map she had bought for this trip.

The girls had gotten a ride from Mariko's father, a man who loved the outdoors and was pleased to see his daughter taking an interest in his hobbies.

"There's supposed to be an old suspension rope bridge somewhere around here." She pointed to another area.

Tomo, Chika, and Fumiko dutifully followed their 'leader' into the woods. The girls proceeded to tromp around in the forest searching. Unfortunately finding a ogre's kiln was a great deal harder than any of them had suspected. Briar patches and other undergrowth had not been planned on and thus the girls were wishing they had the foresight to wear pants as Mariko had.

But bugs could be forgiven and so could the bushes and brambles in the name of adventure. But adventure became all too real when the earth beneath Tomo's feet gave way.

"Tomo! TOMO! Are you okay? Oh God, what do we do?" Chika screeched, as she looked at the hole their friend had fallen through. It seemed she had fallen into one of the abandoned mine shafts. More likely through a dirt ceiling that had eroded with time and disuse rather than the opening shaft of a mine.

The three girls crowded around the hole trying to think of a way to help their friend. Suddenly the girls heard coughing.

"Hey, Tomo-chan! Is that you? You ok?" Mariko yelled into the darkness.

"Yeah, I'm fine! There was a pile of ash or something. You guys need to come down here, I think I found something!" Tomo's voice traveled upwards from the drop.

"I don't think this is a good idea, guys. This is scary! The legend was supposed to be fake!" Fumiko whimpered as she watched Chika repel down the rope.

Fixing an exasperated look at her friend Mariko groaned, "Fumiko! You are such a scaredy cat!"

The timid girl shook her head at her best friend; calling her a coward wasn't going to work this time. She did not want to go!

Sighing, Mariko shrugged her shoulders, "Alright, alright! You don't have to go if you don't want to. But you'll be all alone out here… In the dark scary woods."

Mariko had learned over the years how to manipulate the shyer girl into doing whatever she wanted. Fumiko didn't like to be alone.

Moving so that she could start repelling down the rope, Mariko silently counted. Fumiko seemed to realize what her friend was saying and was struggling to make a choice. Hopping from one foot to another in a strange dance Fumiko made her choice.

"Wait Mariko! Don't leave me!" She cried out as she followed her friend into the darkness.

At the bottom of the rope it seemed that they had found some sort of large atrium-like cavern.

Shining their flashlights around the girls let out sounds of awe.

Tomo looked at the pile of soot she had landed in. "I don't think this is a mine, guys… I don't think gold mines would have soot like this…"

Chika nodded, "Then what is it?"

The others remained silent, unable to answer the question.

Mariko was slowly walking around with Fumiko attached to her arm like a lifeline. "Hey! You'll make me trip!"

"Sorry. Ok we've seen it, now let's go back up!" Fumiko whimpered. There was no question the poor girl was terrified, she was shaking like a leaf.

"Will you relax? We just got here, we should look around some. Don't worry Fumiko, I promise that nothings going to happen to you." The taller girl growled as she ran her free hand through her short hair.

Chika called out to her pals, "Hey! Over here! I think I found a tunnel…"

"Great! Lets go!" Tomo cheered as she followed Chika into the tunnel.

"Hey, wait up! I'm the only one who's got any experience in these outdoor things. I should be in the front!" Mariko declared as she readjusted her heavy backpack and gave Fumiko a small tug.

"Please no, Mariko!" Fumiko whined as her best friend dragged her to the front of the group.

"If you don't like it, cling to Tomo!" Mariko huffed as her friend dragged her heels.

"Yeah, cling to me crybaby!" Tomo jeered at Fumiko tugging at the shorter girl's back pack.

The girls made their way through the tunnel. Chika and Tomo were enjoying tormenting Fumiko who was now crying.

"Grr… Will you two give it a rest? She's wailing into my ears and it's freaking annoying!" Mariko snapped at the two girls.

"Sorrrryyy…. Fumiko's so easy to frighten! Maybe we should have left her back at the entrance!" Chika said in a 'cutesy' voice often used by anime characters. Her latest ambition was to be a voice actor after realizing her previous ambition of being an idol required way too much work.

"So she could wander off and get lost? Cripes she'd get eaten by a bear!" Mariko said testily.

"Hey look the tunnel leads outside. Looks like you were worried for nothing, Fumi!" Tomo stated to the girl still clinging to her best friend.

"Well, that's a letdown… It's a cliff. We have to go back…. GOD, will you stop pulling at me Fumiko! We're going to leave, so you don't have to keep tugging!" Mariko erupted at her timid best friend who was ruining this trip with her cowardice.

Fumiko only gave a strange whimper as she extended her hand to point at something.

Narrowing her eyes to see what could have possibly scared the girl now, probably a lizard. "Wha? … Where did that come from?"

There was a very old suspension bridge held up with rope. She certainly didn't remember it being there a moment ago, but then again she'd been too busy yelling at Fumiko.

Tomo moved a bit closer to Mariko, feeling a bit scared herself now. "That bridge wasn't there a moment ago, was it?"

"Well, lets goooo!" Chika declared in yet another 'cute' voice as she pumped a fist in the air, showing her enthusiasm.

Mariko gave the bridge a contemplative frown as she stared at the half rotted planks and moss growing ropes as it swayed eerily in the nearly nonexistent mountain breeze.

She may have been the one to suggest this whole adventure, but she didn't like the looks of the bridge, "Fumiko and Tomo might be right, Chi. That bridge does not look safe at all."

"Oh, come on! You said that there was supposed to be a suspension bridge that leads to the Ogress's Kiln, remember? Don't you think this might be the one?" Chika said as she took a step onto the rickety bridge. Mariko cringed as the girls' foot touched the first plank, praying to every deity that the wood would hold the high schooler's weight. When there was not so much as an ominous creak, Mariko considered that perhaps the bridge was not nearly as structurally unsound as it appeared to be.

"… You might be right. If we've come this far, we might as well keep going."

With that Mariko lead Tomo and Fumiko onto the bridge.

After a very frightening trip over a seemingly ancient bridge the four girls had made it the other side.

Tomo was now shaking in fear while Fumiko was hyperventilating. It was very dark outside now and they needed to set up camp soon.

"Come on you two. Just a bit more, and we'll set up camp. I'll make you guys some hot cocoa, won't that be nice?" Mariko led the two girls away from the bridge. At least Chika wasn't scared. That would have made it much harder for the tallest girl.

They found a nice open meadow away from the rocky precipice of the cliff where the bridge was located to set up camp. They had a camping stove in place of a fire. Not that they could have found any wood in the rocky area.

"Here you guys go." Mariko said gently to her two friends as she handed them the promised hot chocolate. Mariko was getting worried by Fumiko's behavior. The timid girl seemed to have met her terror threshold and was on the verge of a mental break down.

The girls went to sleep not long after they had discussed their plan for the next day. They would continue to search until noon, then they would go back to the entrance where Tomo had fallen through if they found nothing. They would find a place to hold their séance elsewhere.

/~/~/

"Mornin'." Mariko muttered as her wrist watched beeped. She had set the alarm for 6:30, she wanted all the time they could get to search. After rallying up her tired friends, Mariko marched them along the path they seemed to be on. Fumiko didn't seem as scared, but she figured it was because they could see the sky.

After hiking for an hour they found the end of the trail.

"Oh my God!" Tomo choked out as she stared at the megalith structure before them. Fumiko muttered softly, "This must be it. This is Onigama, the demon kiln…"

It was clearly very old

"This is great you guys! We found it! Now let's see if it's real!" Mariko laughed. The girls began to take photos of themselves next to the giant structure as proof that they had found the legendary kiln with their cell phones.

"Let's take a look at what we can find and see if we can use it!" Chika agreed with their tomboy leader.

The girls then began to search the legendary kiln for clues as to how it worked.

"So who knows the story behind this thing? Like what exactly did the stories say it could do?" Mariko called out as she looked at some strangely shaped mounds of clay nestled in a small cave like open mound next to the kiln.

Tomo recounted the tales of the kiln, "Well it was supposed to belong to an ogress who was also some sort of witch. Urasue, I think. Anyways, she specialized in creating 'spiritual ceramics'. She was able to create beings to do her bidding with this thing."

"Hey look! I found a scroll tucked away in a corner! … I can't read it, the writing style is too old… Hey Fumiko, you can read this right?" Chika asked as she motioned the timid girl over to the scroll.

"Well? Can you read it?"

"…Umm… I think so… there's a bit I don't understand, but I get the gist of what is says…" The girl muttered as she inspected the ancient writing.

"It looks like instructions… The ink is too smudged to read what it says it's for…" Fumiko said slowly as she tried her best to interpret the old scroll.

"Whoa! It must be instructions on how to work this thing! So what's it say?" Tomo asked as she looked over the girl's shoulder.

Mariko laughed, this was going to be so much fun! There was no possible way that there was any real magic right?

"This is WAY better than a séance! What do you girls think? Should we try it?" Mariko asked.

Fumiko was beginning to become curious as were the other two.

"Well it's settled, let's get started now, although it would be cooler to do it at night, we need to head home before midnight my dad'll be waiting where he dropped us off." Mariko declared in her authoritative voice.

"Ne, Fumi. What's the list of stuff?" Tomo called out as she set her bag down.

Squinting at the ancient text she supplied, "Uh, first we need to fill that casket with a potion. I bet that's in those jars over there. Next we need a ceramic figure to bring to life. Maybe we can find something, if not-you're good at pottery right, Tomo? Then we need to have the furnace lit and place the clay doll into it. After… I think it says… 45 minutes? We need to drag the figure out, and it should come to life…"

~!~!~!~

"Man this casket thing is creepy. I think there's someone's hair in there!" Chika whined as she poured in the last of the goopy green contents of the earthenware jar into the strange tub.

"You want to put your hand in that nasty stuff to get it? Wish we noticed it before we filled up the tub-thing." Tomo bantered the other girl slightly.

Chika's face immediately scrunched up in pure disgust, "Ick, no way! I'm sure it doesn't matter…"

"Hmm… Oh, Mariko- you found a doll?" Tomo asked as she looked up from the tub of nastiness. The tall girl was carefully tugging a large clay figure. It didn't look like a person, more like a vague outline of a human body.

Grunting the girl laid the large piece of clay in front of the furnace that Fumiko had managed to light. It was a bit creepy seeing as there was only the single log she had been able to find, yet it seemed like the massive contraption was fully operational with smoke billowing out.

"This was the only one I could find that didn't look broken. The directions said to put a sprig of some plant right?" Mariko asked as she carefully adjusted the clay figure into a better position near the kiln.

"Y-yeah… I think I found some over there… it looks really fresh… maybe someone still uses this thing for pottery?" Fumiko stuttered to her best friend pointing to a cloth covered bundle.

"Whoa, this is fresh. Maybe some still uses it, I'm sure they won't miss one sprig." Mariko stated as she took one of the fresh herbs, "Uh the directions said to place it here right?"

"Uh, a bit higher… Yeah."

"Well lets' fire this thing! Are there any chants we need to say? Surely we have to say some kind of spell, right?" The girl pestered her friend.

"It says something about a magic scythe." Fumiko muttered looking at the scroll while Chika and Mariko pushed the clay figure into the kiln.

"A scythe? What was this tub of … stuff for then?" Tomo asked as she crumpled her nose at the horrible stench of the green liquid.

"It doesn't really say… There's something written but I don't know how to read it…" Fumiko said as she looked at the strange tub.

Chika shrugged, "Maybe it was used for human sacrifice or something. There is some hair in there."

"Well we got 45 minutes to kill, oh but we need that scythe…" Mariko announced.

They found the scythe buried a few yards from the tub.

"Alright! Let's eat lunch and tell scary stories!" Chika cheered as she pumped a fist into the air excitedly.

"Oh no! I don't like ghost stories!" Fumiko wailed as she covered her ears.

/~/~/

Far away in the rebuilt Mushin's shrine a young woman was carrying out some fall cleaning. Kagome had realized that she hadn't cleaned her home in a very long time as she was never home. So she now had a housewife's cleaning apron over top her white miko haori.

It was very strange to see the combination of the apron and the traditional red hakamas. But this wasn't for glamour! It wasn't like anyone was going to see her. She didn't really have neighbors.

Smiling Kagome swept the traditional-like porch as Tobio scrubbed the wooden floors. He was making car noises as he ran on all fours with a washcloth in his hands.

"Doing good, Tobio!" She called out to the robot.

"Will we be done after this, Mama? That new episode of Big Mask is on at one o'clock!" Tobio reminded his mother.

Chuckling at her son's eagerness, "I know, I know! But after this our day of cleaning will be over."

Kagome actually liked Tobio's favorite show Big Mask, the main villain looked exactly like Black Jack! It was especially interesting now as they had added a new character to the show! The new character was the future queen to some far off kingdom who had hired the main character but had been kidnapped by the Black Jack-esque villain. The villain had apparently fallen in love with the woman's beauty admiring her from afar.

The villain had brainwashed the woman into being his slave and was now fighting the main characters as a villainess. The main characters have been trying to free the woman. Kagome had figured out that the royal woman had been modeled after herself so she had a somewhat personal interest in the show.

The miko was thrown from her thoughts as a surge of _something_ pulsed around her, sending her powers flaring in defense.

Kagome gasped leaning into her broom, she felt sick. It was familiar though, she had been through this same type of sickening nausea before, but when?

Gagging Kagome fell to the ground as she vomited a strange green liquid. What in the world? She hadn't eaten anything green. Could it be her small intestines? No, this didn't have the acidic stench of bile nor did it have the consistency of chime…

Heaving large gulps of air, Kagome focused on the mystery liquid. It seemed familiar. Analyzing the fluid she couldn't be sure unless she ran some tests, but there seemed to be large pieces of plant leaves. She didn't know if she could even run the tests in her current condition.

Her heart rate was dropping and it was hard to think. She felt like she was being submerged in a liquid. A distant memory flashed before her eyes she recalled a time in her feudal adventure: she was laying in a large vat of the same mystery fluid she had just vomited, her hands were tied as a ghastly looking old crone cackled over her.

Kagome's eyes flashed in realization. Someone was trying to take her soul once more, using the method that the ogress Urasue had used to revive Kikyou!

But why? And how? Her soul couldn't be pulled from afar by simple magic and at such a distance unless… Unless the person doing this had a piece of her! She was fighting it as hard as she could, but whatever was doing this was being backed up by some serious power!

"Mama! What's wrong?!" The robot cried in alarm as his mother collapsed to the ground coughing and gagging violently.

She didn't have much time to tell the robot everything she would have liked so she spat out important words around the potion she seemed to be vomiting. "Tobio… Urasue! Demon kiln. My soul stolen. Incarnate Kikyou."

It would seem that she was being forced to vomit enough of this potion so that she would be surrounded in it. Which would allow the spell to suck her soul from her body. This was going to hurt…

Kagome felt the familiar pulse of power that seemed to cause her to loose any control over her body. Heart rate: 40 bpm and falling. Her body was now in a supine position, Kagome gave a bloodcurdling scream of pain as her soul was ripped from her body in a large display of light. The last thing she thought was 'At least the jewel is safe...'

/~/~/

The robot child was terrified out of his mind as his Mama stopped moving after the huge light left. "MAMA! What do I do!? Get up, please get up!" He shook her gently.

What could he do? His mother was a doctor but she never got sick. Did doctors have doctors? He needed help! Dashing to the phone Tobio called the only other doctor he knew of.

~!~!~!~

Pinoko was cleaning the dishes when the phone began ringing. "Sensei! The phone! The phone is ringing! Aren't you going to answer it? Why do you always do that?!"

Black Jack listened with half an ear from his rocking chair as his answering machine gave it's normal instructions.

"This is Higurashi, Tobio! I need your help! Mama won't get up! We were cleaning the house and she started vomiting and shaking! I really need your help Black Jack-sensei! Her heart is barely beating an' she's almost not breathing! I gotta call an ambulance!" With that the line went dead.

Higurashi, Tobio- Red Queen's boy if he remembered correctly. Standing up he began to pack medical supplies. Using his computer he looked up Dr. Red Queens address, he could get to Red Queen's house in a few hours if he hurried.

"Where you goin'?" Pinoko called out as she stuck her head out of the kitchen, eyes warily looking at her guardian.

"An emergency. Stay here!" Black Jack ordered with no room for argument.

!/!/

"Oh my God! Look the potion! It's disappearing!"

The girls had followed the instructions and had swung the strange scythe over the clay figure.

"What's happening?!"

The kiln was now billowing torrents of dark smoke into the sky as the flame blazed brightly.

Fumiko began to whimper as she pointed at the ground where they had dragged the clay doll out of the kiln's fire.

Mariko stared horrified as the clay began to chip away, revealing a naked woman! This wasn't supposed to be real!

The clay woman began to stand only to fall to the ground. Blank brown eyes stared emotionlessly from the collapsed woman at the four girls.

She was a zombie!

The terrified girls screamed as a torrent of light came from the sky, hitting the clay woman. The body jerked as the light went into the figure's body.

The four frightened girls were now huddled together in fear and shock as the body began to slowly twitch.

They watched in sheer unadulterated horror as pale white hands slowly and purposely made their way up to the woman's face. She seemed to be testing her new body to see if it was indeed real.

A deep frown formed on the porcelain face as she continued to touch her face. Cold brown eyes snapped open, staring accusatorily at the four girls before trying to use her voice, "W…Whyyy… Why am I here?"

The newly revived Kikyou was the exact same Kikyou that had originally been revived. She would always be stuck in the mode she had died in, a blank slate. As though the adventure of Naraku had never happened.

The spell was designed to bring a soul from the moment of her true death.

Like most potters Urasue had made a spare incase the first one had not been fired correctly in the kiln.

"Why am I here?" Kikyou repeated more forcefully at the girls as she placed her hands on the ground, preparing to lift herself up. Her movements were jerky and uncoordinated as she tried to stand. Kikyou immediately tumbled over as her trembling legs could not support her just yet.

"L-Let's get out of here!" Mariko yelled as her friends screamed as the 'zombie woman' began to rise. With that the panicked high school girls fled as quickly as they could, leaving the zombie behind.

/

The newly undead priestess could only watch as the four young women fled from her presence. 'As they would do well to do.' Contemplated Kikyou, for it was a dire crime to reanimate one such as herself.

She had been unable to sense what the women had been as her powers had yet to come back to her completely. Perhaps they had been kitsune disguised as women? The thought was plausible, as the four creatures had been dressed in the most peculiar way.

After a few moments more of contemplation she stood, having found strength in her new body. The serious women looked about her before heading in the direction she had seen the creatures that had reanimated her had gone. If their ploy was to reanimate others such as herself, it was her duty to put an end to them!

Fumiko wailed as Chika struggled to climb the rope that they had used to descend into the mine, "Hurry up! Hurry up!"

The teens scampered as quickly as they could back into the daylight.

"Oh God! Where's your dad supposed to be?!" Chika wailed as the girls stumbled through the forest desperate to find the road. The moment they spotted the vehicle the girls dove into it screaming for the man to drive.

In their haste the teenage girls left the rope tied to the tree and dangling, unwittingly giving the undead woman the means to follow them.

Kikyou walked along the strange hard black path pursuit of the four possible youkai- though she could not sense even the slightest trace of youkai.

"They must be indeed powerful." Kikyou mused to herself, for only truly powerful youkai could mask themselves from her abilities.

At first she had feared the strange black river she had come across- flaring her powers at the strange formation that was too perfect to be anything but intentional. But then she had stumbled upon the black river after tripping upon a stone. She had braced herself for something horrid- a curse perhaps. But after a moment of lying defensively she realized that the back river was constructed of black stone. Hesitantly she had set out upon it- fearing it would swallow her up or lead her somewhere undesirable.

A couple on a Sunday drive happened to be on this particular road this afternoon. They had expected a sweet afternoon filled with flirting and sweet stolen kisses. They never expected their romantic getaway would involve a naked woman standing in the middle of the road.

A distant rumbling unlike anything she had heard before filled the air. Warily she glanced upon the dark path beneath her feet, would it indeed devour her? The sound was suddenly behind her and the miko spun ready to defend herself. Kikyou stared in shock before narrowing her sharp brown eyes- to a woman who had fought demons all her life the car was a large metal demon that had devoured those people. Hesitation graced her face before she steeled her resolve.

As a priestess she was required to save them!

The couple screamed as a naked woman stood directly in the middle of the road.

"Watch out!" The wife cried to her husband as he swerved the car, slamming on the brakes, to avoid hitting the strange woman.

The woman fell back in astonishment as the strange youkai came unnerving close to striking, her powers had done nothing to slow the beast.

The man shook his head in shock at first before anger began to well up at the pedestrian.

Rolling down his window the man exclaimed, "What the Hell! What the Hell do you think you're doing in the middle of the road!?"

He was silenced by his wife as she whispered, "Oh my God! She's not wearing anything!"

And indeed, the man noticed the woman in the road was without a single stitch of clothing. The couple watched as the woman slowly picked herself up off the hard asphalt road, eyeing them warily.

"Honey she might be a rape victim!" his wife hissed at him as she clasped his forearm tightly. All the better to not get involved the man thought to himself.

Before he could stop her, his wife opened her car door and called out, "Excuse me, Miss? Are you all right? Do you need help?"

His wife turned her head sharply towards him before hissing, "Give me your jacket!"

Grudgingly he took off his jacket and offered it to his wife who snatched it up without a second thought. She approached the pale woman, holding the jacket out to her, "Here, please put this on. We'll take you to the hospital."

Kikyou took the strange garment from the woman and put it on but she could not figure out how to close the garment without a tie of some sort.

The wife watched as the strange woman struggled to place the jacket on herself properly, 'She must be very confused or dazed from her whole ordeal!'

"Let me help you." She offered gently as she proceeded to help the woman zip up the jacket.

Kikyou was very reluctant to enter the metal youkai as the woman tried to guide her into the beast through a square opening on it's side. She kept flaring her purification powers at the beast to no avail. The metal armor must have been very resistant to holy powers.

"It's okay. We won't hurt you. We just want to take you to where you can get help." The man explained from his position at the front of the youkai.

Deciding to believe the couple Kikyou allowed the wife to help her into the youkai's belly.

'I will be able to purify it much easier from the inside.' She reasoned with herself.

The stoic priestess did not allow her alarm to show on her face as the woman reached over her to place a rope like restraint across her chest and lap. Had these people tricked her? No, she could feel no ill intent from these humans.

Instead of moving back to the front seat the wife decided to sit next to the 'traumatized' victim hoping to comfort her and get as much information as she could.

"My name is Moto Mizuki and that is my husband Moto Kakeshi. What is your name, Miss?"

"My name is Kikyou." Was all Kikyou said as she watched the woman place the restraint on herself, securing it with a click.

"What is this strange beast that we now dwell within?" Kikyou inquired as the metal youkai lurched forward, picking up speed quickly.

Mizuki rose a brow at the woman's strange wording before answering, "Ah, yes this car is foreign."

Kikyou did not understand what the woman meant but decided that she must have meant the youkai called 'car' had migrated from the mainland.

The woman reached up towards the front of the 'car youkai' to grab a large cloth sack. Kikyou watched as she dug through the contents of the sack before pulling out a thin rectangular object the miko had never seen before.

"Is it all right if I call the police?"

Uncertain of what the woman was talking about Kikyou gave a small nod.

/

"Pft! Hey get a load of this! Four girls were here claiming they had gone to the demon kiln and brought a zombie back to life!" The policeman gwaffed as he finished filing the report.

"Haw-haw! They must have been drinking, kids do that." His partner replied as he continued to fill out his own reports, most notably one about a woman found naked on a certain road in the mountains...

/

Mrs. Moto helped Kikyou out of the car youkai and towards the strange white building, "They will be able to help you here."

She did not know what this place was- only that she doubted that they would have the means to hunt down the four youkai who had resurrected her if the number of ill and feeble elderly were anything to go by.

She was examined by several people and asked strange questions that made no sense to the miko. What was significant about the date of her birth? And how could one be expected to know the exact number of such a day? Perhaps her mother had known, but Kikyou only knew that she had been born in the summer.

The questions never seemed to end and she never had the chance to ask if all of these pointless questions would help her track down the youkai group who had done this to her. Eventually the questions ceased and she was placed into a chair with wheels and placed in a room. Clearly this was not helping her hunt down those youkai. After a time she decided to leave the room, she would hunt them down and then learn more of the youkai called 'car'. And how to destroy them, she had spied many of the 'car' from the window the numbers were staggering. They were surely planning an amassed attack upon this village! Her duty as a priestess must be upheld! Night fell and the miko felt pressed to move.

Kikyou stared emotionless at the strange hollow cords that had been placed in her arm. With little reservation she tore it from her and stood. She entered the hall and began to search for a way out. A sudden feeling caught her attention as she neared a door. Beyond it she found a great staircase and felt compelled to climb it. The sensation grew as she climbed ever higher, her knees felt weak as she caught a glance out the window- the height was staggering!

Panting slightly at the sight she calmed her nerves as she opened a door, eager to be away from the window though she would never admit it.

'My soul is being called… no, it's being tugged…' Kikyou realized as she neared a wooden door near the end of the hall.

There laying on the strange raised futon, was a woman who looked almost exactly like herself. Her miko powers could tell that this woman was a soulless shell.

Kikyou felt the dull thrum of her soul once again, it would seem that her soul wanted to go to this other woman. "My reincarnation?" Kikyou muttered in uncertainty. That was the only explanation for who this woman could be as she knew that her own body was one made of dust. It was distressing to know that you were dead but entirely unsettling to see the person one would be reborn as.

Dark brown eyes softened as she spotted a small figure curled into a ball on the strange seat next to the other woman.

'A little boy.' Kikyou realized as she gazed at the child.

So, her reincarnation was a mother. Unable to help herself, the undead priestess examined the child.

Her pale fingers sifted softly through the boy's dark hair, wishing that her clay body could feel the fine texture beneath her fingertips.

With a body made of clay and ashes Kikyou could not feel temperature, so she failed to notice the boy's body was ice-cold to the touch as she gingerly inspected his face. The child's face twitched slightly when Kikyou touched the small button-like nose, causing a fierce feeling to swell within the undead woman's heart.

Kikyou gave the shell of a woman on the bed a bittersweet smile, "You are truly lucky. You have what I longed for but could never have… If I had been able to be a normal woman, would my own son have been the same as yours?"

The miko mused as she glanced once again at her reincarnation's child.

"I would be a selfish monster to deprive my reincarnation of the life I, myself longed for. But my time on this Earth is over…" Kikyou whispered solemnly as bittersweet tears began to flow down her face.

"I should hate you, but I cannot. It is not your fault for having the life I wanted, no matter how I wish that it were your fault." Kikyou muttered as she approached the shell, slowly reaching for the woman's hand.

She knew that by touching this woman, her soul would return to her- ending Kikyou's short time of rebirth. Hesitantly she glanced once more at the child before carefully taking the woman's hands into her own. It almost felt like greeting an old friend as warmth rushed into her fingertips and spread upward.

A serene smile graced her face as she felt the clay body crumble.

"Kikyou…" Kagome muttered softly as she stared at the pile of dust next to her bed.

•◘○◙○◘•

Black Jack in his haste had not thought to find out which hospital Red Queen would have been taken to by ambulance and had thus been set back by a few hours in reaching her. A wave of relief hit him when he found his colleague sitting up in bed looking at a strangely large pile of dust by her bed.

Confusion was evident on her face as she took in his presence, "Black Jack-sensei?"

"The boy called my office. He said you were in dire straights." He offered as he assessed her very pale countenance, perhaps a simple case of anemia.

She cast a glance at the boy sleeping on the chair next to her before turning back to him.

A gentle smile graced her face as she gazed at him, "Thank you for coming to my aid. Though, I don't think I need it anymore."

Black Jack reluctantly nodded and turned to leave. Red Queen had a very soothing smile.

~!~!~!~

Omake

Newly released from the hospital Kagome and Tobio made their way around the town.

Kagome stepped into the small café wanting something good to eat before she and Tobio caught the bus back to her town. They would have to hike up the mountain back to the clinic from there, so she needed fuel.

They took seats and began to look through the menu.

Tobio looked in wonder at the fancy and cute deserts, "Mama, can I have a chocolate shake? Look it's got a chocolate panda on it!"

Kagome nodded absently as she scoured the menu for the most nutritionally dense thing she could find.

The bells on the café door began to ring in quick succession as high school girls began to enter, school had let out. It was a very popular café with that age group it seemed if the number of girls in uniforms was anything to go by.

Ignoring all the newcomers Kagome felt it would be wise to get her order placed before these kids started ordering- she wasn't going to wait a half an hour for food. Not when she had a bus to catch. An earsplitting scream disrupted the waiter's attempt to take her order.

"_Z-ZOMBIE!_" was all she heard as a leather school bag flew towards her face. It was only Tobio's quick reflexes that kept the poor doctor from having to make another trip to the hospital. He caught the bag easily and scowled at the girl who had thrown it, "Don't you be mean to my Mama!"

The waiter had also been caught unaware and had crashed into the table before falling to the ground.

The attacker and her friends began to scream as Kagome made to stand up to admonish the girls for nearly hitting her in the face. But before she could get a word out the four girls bolted, screaming about zombies.

Kagome could only gape at the girls, wondering why her life had come to this. And what was that about zombies? Blue eyes widened in realization. Had they been the ones to revive…? Surely not?

**I gave myself the feels writing this! A cute Halloween chapter. I've had this in the making for a long time and finally pushed myself to complete it. If it is a little rough around the edges, please forgive me. And I'm sorry that Black Jack didn't have a huge role just yet. The whole reason I wrote this was based on a sudden musing, "What would happen if Kikyou came back again? To this time period?" **

**I feel like I've finally come to accept Kikyou as a character (though certainly tragic) and even gained a heartfelt insight to how she must have felt and perhaps most importantly that she still had the capacity to show compassion.**

**I suddenly love the idea of Kikyou being terrified of cars and 'A Youkai Called Car' sounds like an epic title for an even more epic story! If it inspires you feel free to go out into the world and write that story- bonus points if Kikyou is involved or the main character!**


End file.
